Quote Originally Posted by CharlesWaugh View Post
VERY nice idea!
And, it's a flat-pack as well.
: - )

A couple thoughts I had:

By lightly welding a little nose (maybe 25mm long) on the outside end of the ratchet, and making that the wire-holding point (with the little 'saddle' for the wire), you could shorten the amount of wire needed.

And, by using a t-handle hex, you could get more leverage when twisting.


The wire one wants is high tensile but bendy. I've been trying to find some of the right stuff myself.
I wonder about fishing leader wire, bu that's rather small diameter and will slice the hose ratherr than clamping it, I fear.
Oh yes I see your idea. I don't unfortunately have access to a welder so I wouldn't be able to do that but it's a good idea if you have the facility to do so. I could of course just cut my ratchet down shorter (and if I use the tool a lot I may do that) but I figured I was happy to waste a few extra inches of wire for now and keep the ratchet longer, this way if it turns out I don't use the tool or make a better one I can do something else with the ratchet maybe.

I do have a T-handle hex key I could have used but it is a huge and rather unwieldy. I created enough force to easily snap my test wire with the current key so I am not sure if I need a t-handle type for general use, easy to pop a couple of holes in it and use if required later on of course. I also have a commercial handle that turns any hex key into a t-handle, I could try that as well.