DC Flex Hose Bridge Clamp Question

[Doug Shepard]

LV has some bridge clamps http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&cat=1,42401&p=53842 for use with flex hose that look like they would work a lot better than the regular clamps I got with my flex hose. But they have 2 different types - one for LH spiral, and one for RH spiral. I'd never really thought about which type of flex I have, but it looks like it may be LH spiral. LV 6" LH clamps are on backorder but they have the RH ones in stock. I know I must be missing something here and will probably do the forehead slap after figuring this out, but couldn't you just turn a RH clamp over and use it on a LH spiral??

[Jim O'Dell]

Doug, sitting here thinking about your question, I'm getting :confused: ...I'm not where I can get to the shop at the moment, but if you look at a piece of flex on one end, then turn it around, isn't one end left hand and the other right hand? (I drew it out on paper because that statement sounded stupid!:D I'm going out to the shop to look, I can't stand it).....OK! I was right!! It was a STUPID statement!!!:D So with that in mind, I don't think turning the clamp around will work. Just like the hose, the pitch will be the wrong direction still.
By the way, I made my own bridge clamps out of extra long regular hose clamps. I just bent the band roughly 90 degrees, bent a hump in this "bridge" to go over the wire in the hose, then bent another 90 degree in the band. Insert back into the screw and tighten up. Don't try to bend it (hammer it into submission :eek: ) when it's cold though. The band tends to break. But for the first one I built, and one that broke bending it, I used a piece of metal bracket to make the "bridge", then pop rivited it to the band, bending the band under the pop rivits so that the rivit heads wouldn't touch the hose. Its a little more involved, but seems to work just as well. I got the all stainless steel bands from McMaster-Carr when I ordered the last set of PVC els and wyes. The pre-made band clamps I found were 7 or 8 bucks each IIRC. These cost me about a buck 75 each, plus a little of my time. They're not pretty, but they work, and are, for the most part, out of sight. Jim.

[Doug Shepard]

Doug, sitting here thinking about your question, I'm getting :confused: ...I'm not where I can get to the shop at the moment, but if you look at a piece of flex on one end, then turn it around, isn't one end left hand and the other right hand? ...

Well that was sure my first thought too and I had to go out and look. But I kept coming up with LH regardless of which end I looked at. Now keep in mind, I'd only had one cup of coffee at that point, so anything's possible. But I'm still having trouble wrapping my noggin around why flipping the clamp over wouldn't work. Perhaps a few more cups of coffee will clear things up.:D Or staring at the pics on LV's site a bit more.

[Doug Arndt]

Doug, I'm on my second cup of coffee, so maybe this will help.

Follow the band around until you hit the zig-zag, the LH one turns left (of course the RH one turns right). No matter which way you travel, you still get a left zig, turning the band around doesn't change this.

[Ron Wessels]

You can also think of it in terms of screw threads. Take a threaded rod. Since the same nut will thread on to either end of the rod, the threading direction must be the same even when turned around.

[glenn bradley]

Ron's got it. Pretend your hose is a nut you were threading on to a large bolt. If you would have to turn it clockwise to thread it on, it's right handed thread. Two different clamps. That being said I use the 70 cent double-wire type and have no problems where they cross the wire in the hose. There's enough plastic material to form a seal when squeezed.

[Chris McKimson]

I like the Lee Valley clamps, and honestly didn't give thought to which ones I got. :o In any event, they all seemed to work just fine. Here's the 4".

http://mainframe.smugmug.com/photos/117943148-S-2.jpg

Chris

[Doug Shepard]

Thanks guys. The nut/bolt parallels help this all make sense now. Either that or I've just had enough coffee now.

Chris - that's an interesting looking blade guard shroud. I'm assuming that's something you made and not bought?

[Dan Forman]

I have the LV clamps, and they do work well. Only thing is that they need about 1 1/2" of solid material to clamp onto, because of the spiral nature of the clamp. So to connect to a blast gate, you will need a sleeve to fit between the blast gate and the flex hose, as the lip on the blast gate isn't long enough for the clamp. I wish LV carried a great big honkin' one to clamp the hose for collection barrel!
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010544-1.jpg

I hope you can see this, there is a 4" sleeve fastened to the lip of the blast gate, which receives the flex hose over which the clamp goes. Without that, the clamp has no solid surface under part of the flex hose, so can't secure it. The sleeve is slightly tapered as well, which makes it easier to connect the flex hose to it. Oneida sells the sleeve, I think they call it a blast gate adaptor. You should be able to get some made for you by your local HVAC supplier, that's where I got mine.

Dan

[Chris McKimson]

Chris - that's an interesting looking blade guard shroud. I'm assuming that's something you made and not bought?

Doug, that is a replacement basket for the Biesemeyer overhead guard made by Lee Styron, maker of the Sharkguard. It's a bargin. The improvement in performance is substansial, the cost isn't.

Chris