One of the things we decided to do on the backhoe project was replace all the hydraulic lines on…

One of the things we decided to do on the backhoe project was replace all the hydraulic lines on the rear of the machine, as most of them were looking pretty rotten, and now was the time to change them while everything was all apart.
Turns out that you can’t just order new lines for this machine-you have to take them to a hose shop and have them made. Well, seeing as I have all the equipment to make hydraulic hoses for my own stuff, it just made sense to order up hose and ends and build the lines ourselves.
I’m a big fan of abrasion sleeve for hydraulic lines-in addition to abrasion resistance, the sleeve gives the hoses excellent UV protection and, IMHO, adds years of service life to hoses. So every hose I made I also installed abrasion sleeve.
Here are most of the hoses all made, labeled, sleeved and ready to be installed.

Another thing I’m a big fan of is cleaning-and I mean REALLY cleaning-hydraulic lines after they have been made. Debris from hose making or changing in a machines hydraulic system can really wreck havoc and make for costly troubleshooting and repairs.
To that end, I have some pretty cool tools for cleaning hoses. This is my projectile gun kit. It shoots special foam projectiles through hydraulic lines to scrub them clean on the inside.

Here’s a short video of @wash11 and I using it to clean a line.

We catch and account for every projectile to make sure the whole projectile is cleared from the line, and to verify the cleanliness of the projectile. If it’s dirty, we keep cleaning. We use a liquid cleaner in conjunction with the projectiles for a squeaky clean result.
Now, usually what I get out of the lines when cleaning them is pretty benign-small pieces of rubber or tiny amounts of dirt or dust. But on one of these lines, we blew clear something I’ve never had come out of a new line before:

Holy crap!!
It was a steel shaving , apparently from the manufacture of one of these hose ends that some how was lodged in the end itself. Just running solvent and compressed air through the line didn’t dislodge it. It only came out when we sent the cleaning projectile through. This piece of metal would have assuredly caused damage in the hydraulic system had we not removed it! That right there justified any time and expense we spent cleaning the lines so thoroughly.