On the metric hose: Why didn't I think of this three days ago?

[jmowreader]

A few days ago I asked the Lounge for sources for metric-size hose. It engendered at least one copycat and one suggestion: McMaster-Carr.

I went to McMaster-Carr's website, found a hose I thought would work fine and ordered 25 feet--the smallest amount you can possibly get. This shit is stiff as a fucking board. I need to put it in a roller pump, which works by compressing the hose, so the stiff shit wasn't going to do me any favors.

I was driving home from work last night and thought, where can I get such a thing as super flexible super small metric hose? Why yes, of course! At a motorcycle shop! Big bikes have vacuum lines, right? Something in that line should be plenty good.

"Nope, sorry. Nothing of the sort. Go next door."

Next door was a chain saw store. And hanging on the wall is a very nice neat little card: "Fuel Hose For Sale" with various sizes of chain saw fuel hoses...including the exact size I need. If you can run 50:1 premix through this shit without melting a hole in the side, you can definitely run glycol ethers through it. "Give me ten feet of hose number one." I pull out eleven dollars--it's a dollar a foot, plus tax--to pay the lady. She came back with a box and a sad expression on her face. "This is all I have. I'll sell you the whole box for two dollars." The "whole box" contained about twenty feet, all tangled up, so I offered to give her ten dollars. "Nope. Two is fine." I paid my $2 and ran back to the shop as fast as I could. It went right in and pumps ink really nicely.