Spring is upon us and with it so are gardening projects

I wanted to improve on watering of plants with piping system connected to each plant pot, since I had most of parts on hand I thought it would be a nice quick work.

Issue arose when it came to connecting hoses since I haven't had metal clamping rings. Getting them from shop was already against the spirit of throwing things together from what I had laying around but prices, at least for low volume at my local gardening/construction shops, were straight up crazy, and it was quickly adding up if I wanted to lay the hoses neatly, in parallel to outside walls with all their bends and kinks. That's when I remembered watching some youtube video years ago presenting the tool for clamping hoses with regular wires. I googled it and there were plenty of photos and videos presenting such tools. For some reason DIY versions of these are often overcomplicated or involve, let's say, 'more advanced tools' like welder. I looked into hardware I had on hand and I came up with this

​

https://preview.redd.it/3cn4pf2brxpa1.jpg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=cd20acebef33cc4a67fa615310b0e44be8d29530

​

It's just a piece of all threaded rod, 3 nuts and washer. Only tool that was needed was a file to make notches on the bottom of rod and on side of washer. I've added a piece of old broom handle on top to make it less janky and for suppose leverage which I don't think is necessary, which adds extra materials-wood and epoxy and tool-drill to hollow it so it fits over the rod. It's as simple as it gets, I'm using hardware that is easily available and which most of DIYers and homesteaders likely have on hand and modify it by just filling notches.

​

Few afterthoughts

After testing it on few pieces of hose I came to the conclusion that I should deepen my notches, but I guess that depends on the gauge of the wire you are going to use so I'll be doing some extra filing on this piece. Also diameter of the washer could be bigger to allow easier access to nut that pushes it since I had a hard time getting in there with my wrench (which was necessary only for few last turns, most of it I managed to turn by hand).

Diameter of the bottom part of tool (section of rod that touches the wire) matters since it determines distance between wire loops, it worked for the scale I am using it at but I still may consider filing it just to make things neater and tighter.

​

https://preview.redd.it/9a5mzn2rrxpa1.jpg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=9e95f89d925fb8cd99b3db91814c36262b435fc8

https://preview.redd.it/j7w0bh2rrxpa1.jpg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=818e3460c547845da33d58f3ef0f15997a02f191

Well, I hope seeing this version of the tool will be useful to someone, especially since it doesn't require any special tools or manufacturing of complicated parts. I've also seen pictures of few other versions based on roman screw (is this how it is called in english? Google and Duckduckgo return few pictures of them but I'm not convinced, I'm referring to hardware used for tensioning with use of 2 bolts and frame they thread into) which seems like a good base for this tool that should actually be easier to operate.

Anyway, while I won't be using this tool on regular basis it's good to have it among my inventory, it was easy to assemble and will be handy whenever wire will be used