Hose clamp handles for GF supplied clamp

I think you will have so much fun. I love digital sculpting and then printing – almost as much as working in clay :blush:

I use PLA exclusively because of its earth-friendly nature, but it does restrict in some ways what you can and cannot do.

Another way to make handles is with Polymorph. That is polycaprolactone plastic than can be melted in hot water and moulded by hand. So you can warp it around the clamp. When it cools it hardens like HDPE and it contracts slightly so will grip the metal.

I shoved a pen through some and it was impossible to remove. http://hydraraptor.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/pen-pusher.html

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Polymorph looks like Friendly Plastic.
Fun stuff. I made a lot of accessories for Lego minifigs out of Friendly Plastic. Unfortunately it gets brittle over time.

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Oogoo, which is a diy version of Sugru, is another good option. It’s basically just silicone mixed with cornstarch (recommended to get the 100% silicone that doesn’t have various weird petrochemical additives added if you plan to touch it a lot or use it around food).

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Yes looking up the number in the MSDS for Friendly Plastic it is indeed PCL. I have a spool of it and 3D printed a few objects in the early days of RepRap. I haven’t noticed it going brittle. In fact the opposite. The filament is very flexible and was difficult to extrude in the extruder I had at the time, nothing compared to 1.75mm Filaflex nowadays. That is like pushing string. The printed objects were also surprisingly flexible because when it is solid it very rigid.

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Caveat: When I say “brittle over time” I am thinking specifically of the minifig accessories that I made 20-30 years ago. They were flexy back then. They are brittle now. That’s a long time, plastics age. I don’t hold it against the product.

I guess I’m kind of out of the loop on these clamps. What makes a thing like these holders necessary? If it’s a pain to pinch the clamp, wouldn’t a channel locks or something like that work?

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One of the most frequent things I had to replace during my stint as a business phone referbisher was the plastic covers that went over the button/ label area. Some not even 5 years old and had gone from whiteish/clear and flexible to yellow and brittle.

Channel locks might work ok or a small squeeze clamp (ha, that’s meta. a clamp to squeeze a clamp. I often use a squeeze clamp to keep somthing open while affixing and then fliip the release trigger and everything falls in place). Part of it is going to be hand strength, finger strength and size of fingers and the position you are in and the hose is in when you are clamping. Since the wire is around 1/8" it’s putting a lot of force in a small area of your finigers. Spreading the force on to handles makes them not so difficult to hold open. Probably easier than a mitral valve repair, but it does kind of map to what @henryhbk has been working on, syncronizing three round things (hose, exhaust outlet and clamp)but having only two hands!

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Yes, that’s what I typically use on this type of clamp. I suppose having handles like @palmercr designed could be more convenient if you are connecting your exhaust hose every day and then removing it at the end of the day.

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First off - I’m sorry that this is delayed, a ton of craziness has happened between now and receiving my Glowforge.

@palmercr was nice enough to print me out a set of these handles and mail them to me from across the pond! I’ve had them for about a week and would like to report on how they work with the supplied clamp.

After using these I reverse my decision about the supplied clamp being the bane of my existence. With these handles its actually pretty easy and I could see how it will be preferred to the screw type clamp I mentioned earlier in It happened! I can quickly disconnect it if needed and they apply just the right amount of force to keep the hose on without any potential damage.

Handles on the clamp

Compressed

Different angle

On the Glowforge

Easy compressibility

Tight fit.

As you can see they are a tight fit because of how close the clamp needs to be to the Glowforge. Making them a little narrower (by say an 1/8? on each side?) would prevent them from interfering with the side of the machine. The other bit that took some getting used to is that because they are flat and mounted in the center on a spindle they tend to want to pivot on you when you are applying pressure. I wonder if both issues could be solved by making it round (more like a dowel).

Thanks again @palmercr - it was very kind of you to send these to us and it just goes to show how amazing this community it :slight_smile:

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This is cool. Thanks @palmercr for making this clamp usable. They are very handy but the ends just are painful to pinch for my fingers. We have a saying in the ministry: these hands are for chalices, not calluses.:rofl:

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These are sweet, but I just got Flow George today and need a more immediate solution. I used a zip tie to hold the clamp open (after first getting it into that state with the aid of pliers):


It worked great… no pressure (literally) as I took my time to get it into position.

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Very clever clamp wrangling!

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Congrats on getting your GF :glowforge: :+1:

nice! I use twisty ties

I found an interesting solution for my exhaust hose - a dryer dock connection that I ordered from amazon. It lets you connect the hose to the one piece and then uses an easier connect and twist to lock it to the piece attached to the glow forge. This might be a good solution for anyone moving their GF around a lot requiring connecting and disconnecting the hose.

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hmm I’m wondering if you’re going to have leakage at that joint. I’m no expert but if that joint is loaded with positive pressure won’t it push apart? maybe some kind of gasket ?

It’s a insert, twist and lock solution but I do like the idea of a gasket to further seal the connection.