Swabbing out a tube with air brake tubing

[Frank S]

When it comes to cleaning out a long piece of hydraulic tubing, I find that using a length of smaller diameter air brake tubing by pushing an oiled cotton swab works better than most things as it can be pushed through bends as well as the straight sections and about the only way to insure there are no metal particles left in the line

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Tubing Swab to our Cleaning category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Tubing Swab by Frank S

tags: tubing, cleaner

[piper184]

Clever idea. I usually have some different sizes of poly tubing laying around that would work for this. Hopefully I will remember this idea the next time I need it.

The Caterpillar dealer I used to work for made hydraulic hoses. We used foam "projectiles" after the hose was cut to length and blew them through with compressed air. One from each direction. After the ends were crimped on we did it again. Never tried it on tubing. Really tight bends or restrictions might be a problem point.
For refrigeration lines there was an air powered cleaning gun that blew solvent through the system to flush out the gunk

[Frank S]

Clever idea. I usually have some different sizes of poly tubing laying around that would work for this. Hopefully I will remember this idea the next time I need it.

The Caterpillar dealer I used to work for made hydraulic hoses. We used foam "projectiles" after the hose was cut to length and blew them through with compressed air. One from each direction. After the ends were crimped on we did it again. Never tried it on tubing. Really tight bends or restrictions might be a problem point.
For refrigeration lines there was an air powered cleaning gun that blew solvent through the system to flush out the gunk

I had a contaminated system where some internals had worn leaving very fine particles throughout every line and poppet valve. disassembling washing blowing wiping and, swabbing the bores of all hoses and lines seemed the only way to insure all of the fine particles were removed since there hadn't been a filtration unit on the system