I must be some kind of idiot. I've had one for years and cant make the thing work worth a damn. Either it does nothing, almost nothing, or blows the *** end out of the tube and makes a big mess. It's come close to getting flying lessons.
Hi all. It makes me very happy for all the love you are showing the Valco Cincinnati “Tube Grip”. I was part of the development of this really great tool. Let me tell the story as I remember. This was in the 90’s and I was a new product development engineer for 11 years with this company. My boss and mentor Ray Haerr, was good friends with the owner Rich Santefort. This was a medium size manufacturing business of around 200 employees. We made industrial adhesive application equipment. It was privately owned by two families in partnership. Rich lived on a small farm and got interested in tractor pulling at the various fairs he attended during those years. He graduated to pickup truck, pulling trucks and rose in the ranks of class, horsepower and skills. By the time he was running an alcohol fueled big block Chevy, he was rebuilding the engine frequently during the season. It was about this time he came to Ray, explained his frustration with applying a small bead of RTV sealant, and the two of them hatched the idea for the Tube Grip.
First they bought every tube squeezing apparatus they could get their hands on. Nothing worked worth a darn, especially for RTV type of adhesives. I don’t know who had the idea of two plates squeezing the tube, but the first time I saw what they had come up with it looked pretty much like what it is today. My desk was two away from Ray’s and we all were juggling five or more projects at a time and I remember spit-balling ideas about different versions to try. I still have one of the more successful prototypes that I’ll show in my photos.
Initially, Rich sold hand made models at tractor pulls and convinced our sales staff to include a small display with our regular convention booth with much grumbling from them. Why show $20 items along side $20,000 on up, gluing systems.
The “Tube Grip” gained some traction and was selling pretty well when he came back to Ray for the re-design. It was then they decided they needed to change over to a progressive die used in punch press type of manufacturing and the big investments in those dies.
Rich knew he needed a more robust sales plan and hired a dedicated sales force, assembly and packaging for hanging cards and in store displays. This was all before the internet, so word of mouth, industrial shows, store promotions were all needed. This is all stuff that was new to our factory and there was a steep and expensive learning curve. They created a new division of Valco, “The Consumer Products Group”.
By the time I left the company in 2001, Tube Grip was moving along slowly but I knew it was an awesome tool, under rated and possibly destined for greatness!
Now to troubleshoot LCheapo’s tube gripping.
WWheeler’s two you tube links are great at showing 1st, how it’s supposed to work. And 2nd, an assembly quirk I didn’t know was possible but could very well render the tool “useless”.
I actually have a RTV project coming up soon and I just bought a new tube for my job. ( but it also works awesome in re-starting a somewhat dried tube into working again).
Open your new tube of sealant, puncture the top using the pointed plastic cap rotating it so you have maximum opening in the tube before screwing on the tapered “extension nozzle”.
Next using my fingers I compress the very back of the tube if I can making a flattened area, like this.
