I bought another one of these: A torch attached to a 5' hose allowing one handed operation (lighting and, more importantly, extinguishing the flame). The hose is thick, unwieldy and hard to control. It has a nasty habit of swinging into the work field. A risk of hose damage is significant.
I e-mailed Bernzomatic to ask about repairing the hose if such accident should occur. I am told it cannot be done.
Has anyone tried it? It seems ridiculous to have to replace the whole kit, hose, regulator and torch, if one gets a small nick/burn in the hose.
You asked specifically about repairing the *hose*. Bernzomatic would be fools to try to suggest any way to do that -- because there is too much chance of a failed repair resulting in a fire.
Now -- *replacing* the hose itself might be possible -- if you have the tools to crimp the ferrules on to hold a replacement hose on the exiting fittings. (I've not seen one of these, but I strongly suspect that they are made using crimp fittings.)
However, if it uses the fitting I'm thinking of, The crimped/swaged sleeve part can be cut/mangled off, the barbed fitting/s pulled out of the old hose/s, & installed in the new with clamps.
Once a hose assembly gets lunched, take it apart & have a look... you have nothing to loose.
As always, use good judgment, common sense and all that.
Propane-rated hose is readily available from the welding supply here, if not somewhere else. On my setup, gas regulation is on the gas bottle, so hose clamps would be perfectly feasible to use for holding the replacement hose in place, no fancy crimp ferrules needed, it's low pressure. YMMV. 5' of hose is sometimes too much, other times not enough. And the bottle needs a foot to keep from tipping over, Coleman sells such a thing for their propane lanterns.
Amen to that! None of the other air/gas torches I have seen have stupid hoses like this one.
One of the reasons I have asked this question is to find out how the hose is constructed: How much damage can one do the rubber outer covering before it becomes an issue? Is there some sort of armoring layer underneath the outer?
As somebody pointed out the hose is so stiff and heavy that it causes the cylinder to tip over. The kit comes with a "holster" to attach to one's belt. I am way ahead of them on this one and made my own. Believe me, it is not the complete answer either. On their holster there is a tube which is supposed to house the torch nozzle when not in use. While one is wearing the holster, this tube is millimeters from your body - no way am I inserting the hot torch nozzle into it risking burns! I made a stand for the cylinder which also has a holster for the torch nozzle.
One of the reasons I bought this torch is the ability to extinguish the flame using the hand that holds the torch. Previously I used a torch with a shorter hose which had to be extinguished by turning the regulator off on the cylinder - less than ideal! However, this would give me the option to swap the hoses if it was necessary and feasible.
Most of that hose has multiple layers and the center one has a woven cloth reinforcement. Can't say as I've played with propane hose except as assembled units. I'd assume it would be the same construction.
The torch head I have came with a small wire stand, presumably to fix the thing into position while manipulating the work piece(s), but it would also work to hold the torch away from flammables/meltables while it was cooling off. Didn't have a holster with mine when I got it, it's a bit retro anyway, no integral sparker for lighting off. Hot little sucker, though, day after I got it, I had to use it to get brake drums off the b-in-l's F150, well rusted to the hubs. Ran it around the stud circle a few times on the first one and it went ponk and came loose. Had used a 10 lb sledge on it previously and it wasn't budging. I think it'd be a pretty good setup for soldering copper plumbing up in spaces where head+tank just wouldn't fit with the regular sort of torch. Cheaper than a Prestolite setup, too.
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