Weldcraft has or had a thin rubber tube. You would need to unhook the torch from the cable & lines to thread them through. An industrial hose shop should have woven nylon casing, same deal, remove the torch to thread them through. These don't give the protedction of the leather covers, but they are lighter and more flexable.

Hello El Cazador, Dave has already given you a couple of suggestions for covers. There are also a number of other ones which have a zipper so that you can install them without disconnecting your lines, others yet, have snap buttons that serve the same purpose. You mentioned that the covers seem expensive, I guess I don't know what you are considering expensive so it's hard to judge what is or isn't. I do know that if you are having to replace cooler or torch lines very often that they can definitely lead to some serious money so having to put out a bit more on the front end for a protective cover will save you in the long run. As for inexpensive or alternative covers, there are some nylon sleeves that are often used to protect hydraulic lines or poly water or air lines that could possibly serve the same purpose for your cooler/tig lines. They might be found at an industrial supply store or some other similar industrial supplier. They would however, require you to feed the lines through them and then connect them back to your machine. A bit more food for thought. Best regards, aevald

Its funny, I've been meaning to post a pic of my idea for this for some time, but never got around to bringing my camera to the shop.  I'll try to do that tonight or tomorrow.

I've got the cheap faux leather zip on cover, but only bought a 10' one (because it is SO MUCH cheaper, although 6' would be fine too), and put it on the torch end of a 25' air-cooled line.  I then slipped the line inside of 1/2" ENT flex-conduit (but 3/4" should fit water cooled lines), AKA "smurf tube", attached one end of the tube to my cart, and the other, to the zip-cover.  10' sections run just over $3.  Couplers are under $1, and are seriously strong for such light plastic.

Its awesome.  The tube is strong enough to stay round even if I step on it (the zip covers don't really provide any crush protection), is rigid enough to prevent any kinking at all, and being round and smooth, it drags along the floor beautifully, and barely picks up dirt (unlike the leather cover, which clings to every bit of grinding dust).  You still need the zip-cover on the torch end, as this is far to stiff, but you really only need the part of the line from the floor up to your hand to be flexible.  The rigidity also prevents tangles, and I just wind it up onto hooks on the cart at the end of the day.

I first did this with the orange version of this tube (designed for low voltage wires, it is thinner walled and more flexible), but it was too weak, and eventually cracked.

BTW, I use the coil wrap from another post (actually "split loom" wrap, but it serves the same purpose), on the back half of my ground wire, to protect it from abrasion, from being dragged on the floor, but it won't protect a hose from being stepped on.

Did I mention that it also kinda matches my blue machine (not that I want to start with that argument).

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.  Just a hobby welder and that's why I'm looking to save money, but I agree with aevald that some money is in fact well spent.
Thanks, again.

Vic
Redlands, CA