What size fire hose to use?

[Camania]

I have 40 feet of 3 inch lay flat hose, would this be ok to use if i ran four strips of it? i could also get 8 inch wide hose from someone on here if i needed to. any input is appreciated.

[gozaimaas]

My theory is that the 3" hose will be fine if you keep a very small neat gap between the top and bottom molds.
I would aim for 50% of the diameter of the hose.
If you feel this makes things too tight then step up to a larger hose and make your gap 50% of the diameter of the larger hose

[chrismp]

You can get away with smaller hoses, but like gozaimaas said the gap between your molds needs to be very small which can make it hard to load the press. Maybe if you haven't built your press already try to use a design that lets you adjust the gap between the molds...there are multiple ideas on how to achieve this on this forum.

[Camania]

thanks for the info guys. Im pry gonna buy some 8 inch just to have options. could i get away with using one piece of 8 inch lay flat? the press will have a cat track. inner frame is 18 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

[twizzstyle]

could i get away with using one piece of 8 inch lay flat?

Boards or skis? The short answer is yes. You'll just need twice the pressure to get an equivalent pressing force. But that shouldn't be a big deal unless you're planning to press with very high forces.

But if the cat track is wide (for a snowboard or two skis) you'll want to make absolutely sure the hose is centered or it might press unevenly side-to-side. If you've got the space, I would go with two hoses. Less pressure, won't get uneven pressing, safer overall.

[Camania]

cool thanks again, imma just spend the extra cash and get two 9 foot pieces of 8 inch

[MadRussian]

I tried to use a small diameter firehose (2.5" flat) in one experiment it doesn't work simply does not produce pressure like 5"( 8" flat) firehose does.