It’s a metal band with holes all along it, meant to be formed into a circle with the free end inserted into a section where turning a screw ratchets the band closed tighter and tighter around whatever. They come in lots of sizes. I need to order a couple but can’t think of the name of the thing.
Hose clamp
Ah, hose clamp. Exactly.
Also known as a jubilee clip
And if you’re going to use them much get nut drivers to tighten them with. Much better than a wrench or a screwdriver…
And from this, Hose clamp we find this Marman clamp where we get this: “The Marman clamp was first produced by Herbert Marx, better known by his stage name of Zeppo Marx.”
And Mrs. Bloom asks me why I spend so much time in GQ.
OK, since the OP appears to have been answered, how about this: can you get lengths of the hose clamp banding and the worm gear parts separately, so you can make hose clamps of arbitrary diameters?
Yes.
And don’t over-tighten it, else the edge of the stainless steel band will cut into the hose.
There are other designs of hose clamps that will not cut into the hose when you tighten it, but they’re harder to come by and (usually) a bit more expensive.
That’s exactly what I asked for, but not what a meant to ask for. I should have been clearer - how about a setup with a band that has the angled worm gear perforations all along its length? Instead of 3" of worm gear band and 6 feet of square-hole band, you’d have 6 feet of worm gear band and a crimp-on worm gear.
I’m interested in using such a band/gear as the opposite of a clamp: instead of pulling a ring tighter, I’d like to push a length of this banding from a coil down a tube against modest resistance. Imagine a motorized cross between a standard tape measure and a fish tape.
And this is another great reason to keep one of those cheap 6 in 1 screwdrivers on hand. What many people don’t know is that when you take the screwdriver bits out, you’re left with a nut driver. The two sides are two, more or less, standard sizes.
Something like this? I can’t quite picture what you’re explaining.
What’s the end game? I can think of a few ideas but it would depend on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking of, thanks - 2.5 m of perforated metal tape, and separate worm gears.
The endgame is to put the tape into a set of telescoping tubes that can be extended and retracted by pushing or pulling on the tape. The tape is stiff enough to transmit the push, and the nested tubes keep the tape from kinking. Basically, like an automatic car antenna, but scaled up and able to push/lift a modest load against gravity, or to hook onto something and pull on it with greater force. The worm gear setup keeps things locked in position unless the worm is driven.
I’m still not picturing it. But what about fish sticks. They’re fiberglass rods, that you can screw end to end if you need to. They’re meant for pulling (or pushing) wires through areas where fishtape doesn’t work. For example, running a wire from a hole in the basement ceiling up to a hole in the wall. They won’t just wind up like fish tape and you can push through things like insulation.
My only qualm is that I have to wear disposable latex gloves when I use them, otherwise my hands get full of fiberglass. Whether it’s shedding off the rods or coming from the wall, I don’t know, but I’m one of those people that are really sensitive to it.