Spooling my own custom Air Hose with Harbor Freight Air Hose Reel

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My garage has notoriously been very disorganized considering all my projects and tools. Some projects get started and then never finished. Tools get left our and despite our best intentions never get put away.

Air hoses are no different and need a place to go. I have already collected numerous air hoses over the years, all 3/8". Air hoses typically don't go bad - at worse the ends would need cut off and new ones put in place.

I have seen a lot of self winding air hose reels over the years however those are quite expensive and it would seem like you have to use the air hoses included with them.

Harbor freight has a nice air hose reel for a fraction of the price of the all in one reels I have seen over the years. You have to assemble the reel yourself and supply your own air hose - which is perfect for me - I have a lot of 3/8 air hose.

Although harbor freight sells the reels that already have there own air hose in them, that would not solve my problem of existing air hose and are 5x the price. The more expensive reels come already assembled - you just mount it to the wall.

Reel Assembly

There is some assembly required for the reel. For starters the main bracket has to be screwed down to the wall. It can be mounted vertically or horizontally - I used old junk screws I had laying around. The kind of screws with square heads. The square head screws are very hard to work with but if you drill out the hole it is screwing into first they can work just find.

The shop is a pole barn style build out of 4" by 4" studs and 2" by 4"s. I simple screwed the main bracket of the reel right up to a 4" by 4" post.

The 4 guard's have to be bolted together using a small wrench and a allen wrench. The guards hold the air hose into place, the whole plate then spins which allows you to reel or un-reel the hose.

The hose threads right into the hardware of the reel, as pictured. The kit comes with a flex-able 90 degree air coupler that allows the whole unit to spin without kinking or unscrewing the hose.