I've been engaging in a discussion in the Leon Mk3 section about spark plugs and we got into the problem of the coils and torque tightening. the person involved didn't have a torque wrench so I offered some opinions around that. A torque wrench is quite a specialized piece of kit where quite a variety of choice is available and there are some cheap and, perhaps less satisfactory, options. This got me to thinking about brake pipe flaring tools where I believe a similar situation obtains.
Garage workshops and other providers, like my local Factor, usually have a relatively big, but very robust bench mounted tool for doing pipe flares. These tools - often around the £150 mark for even a "cheap" one do a beautiful job but can't be effectively used unless held in a bench vice. People like us "driveway grease monkeys" need something much more portable and preferably usable to flare a cut end still on the car. The big problem with this is that most of the cheaper tools simply can't deal with the original steel pipes on the car - although pretty much all will do copper pipe and many can do the slightly harder cupro nickel (Kunifer) which I prefer to use. Many many years ago I bought, largely in ignorance, what has turned out to be an excellent tool. I'll post some pictures to illustrate, it's the one with the looped red handle.
It's not very often that I need to flare steel tubing but it's handy to be able to do this when splicing in to a good section of existing manufacturer's pipe were only a small section, often at the wheel end of a pipe, is actually corroded. Most MOT testers will allow one splice per length of pipe I find. This red loop handled tool does this splendidly and must have done hundreds of flares in copper and Kunifer (I use copper for short convoluted runs, maybe down a radius arm for instance because it's easy to form bends in and I use Kunifer for longer runs like front to rear pipes as it's much less prone to sagging.
Then, absolute disaster, I went to do a brake pipe one day and couldn't find the flaring tool! I searched the garage from top to bottom, and I've got so much "useful stuff" in my garage that was no mean feat! But, no sign of it so I had to buy a new tool! The one I bought was the big one with the red scissor like handles - top one in the first picture in the sequence - as it was on a special offer and got good reviews. It's not a "bad" tool but it's quite a bit more unwieldy than my old tool. It did the job though. Having owned it for a number of years now there is one thing I don't like about it though. Look at the smallest forming end - which is at the right hand end of the strip of forming tools you can see in the second picture - (by the way this tool is supposed to be able to do a wide range of pipe sizes. I've only ever used it on the smallest 3/16 inch pipe and if you're only ever likely to flare brake pipe with it you don't need all the rest) Can you see there's a long "spike"? this goes down the tube and helps to keep the die centred as it forms the flare. Actually this helps it to make a very nice even flare - something a lot of the cheaper tools struggle with - but, because the pipe folds over inwards on it as the No1 (bubble) flare is formed the pipe grips this spike quite firmly and makes it quite difficult to subsequently withdraw the die from the formed end of the pipe. Also, because you inevitably end up levering at it with a screwdriver, there's a very real danger of breaking it off and leaving it in the pipe! Interestingly perhaps, I've come across Ebay ads for replacement dies for this tool? If you find a good offer on one though I wouldn't discount it as it makes a nice flare, just be careful withdrawing that die strip. I've never tried it on the steel tube so can't comment on that.
Then, probably about 18 months later, I was "stirring" my garden shed around looking for something else and there, lying on top of a very old Ransomes cylinder mower which is an ongoing restoration project, I came across my old friend the looped red handled flaring tool! I have no recollection of ever putting it down there and I can think of no reason why I would even take it into the shed, but what the hell, Hallelujah, I've got it back! As I greatly prefer to use the loop handled tool the scissor handled tool has now become a backup tool "just in case" and lives in it's box on the shelf.
Nearly up to date now and I've been concerned for some time now that I've been using the old loop handled tool to make flares for use with metric tube nuts. This old tool is specifically for making the old SAE 3/16" type flares but still works very well with the virtually identical modern 4.75mm size. The more modern Metric "DIN" flares are very similar but the back end of the flare, which rests against the tube nut, is at right angles to the pipe wall whereas the SAE flare has this back face at an angle. The nuts are formed to take account of this and it's always niggled at me just a little that the metric nut, if used with an SAE flared pipe, might cut through the pipe due to it's - the nut - relatively "sharp" corner shape. I have to say I've been making flares for metric nuts with my SAE tool for many years and never had a problem and I think this is because the soft copper/Kunifer is easily reformed by the nut as it's tightened? However it continued to worry me so, about a month ago, when I was about to tackle a brake rebuild on the back brakes of our Panda and saw the very corroded state of the pipes, I decided to relent and buy a proper DIN flaring tool. Because the old looped handle tool has worked so well I decided to look for a similar design and finally found the one with the black handle shown in the pictures. Frost Restorations, amongst others, sell them and I've been warned there are counterfeit examples around so beware. They actually state it flares steel tube too! I've only so far done a couple of flares with it but it's just like using my old loop handled friend and I'm delighted with it! Look carefully at the pipe holding dies and you can clearly see the difference in the shape of the flare formed.
There is one difference between them though and that is that the old tool's forcing screw is separate from the forming dies so the forming die does not rotate against the pipe during use (I lube the threads and dies with moly grease and put a wee "dod" of red rubber grease on the forming face of the die which seems to help things not to wear and eases the force needed when forming. The new tool's die is a one piece item with the forcing screw so rotates against the pipe end whilst forming the flare, which the old loop handled tools dies do not. I was a little worried this might lead to scoring etc of the newly formed flare, but no! It looks just as good as a flare formed with the old tool. I wouldn't do it without a "wee dod" of rubber or maybe silicon grease - or anything seal friendly - on the forming end though. Also, because of the design of the tools the forming die is withdrawn axially in line with the pipe bore so there is virtually zero risk of damage to the wee "pip" in the middle which enters the pipe bore during forming.
So, there you are, bearing in mind I've not extensively used other designs, but have seen some other peoples disasters, I can heartily recommend this design of tool and the fact that it's easily used on the vehicle. Must say though, I really lust after the Sykes Pickavant hand held jobbie though: https://www.sykes-pickavant.com/products/braking-tools/on-car just can't justify the price to "her indoors"!
Garage workshops and other providers, like my local Factor, usually have a relatively big, but very robust bench mounted tool for doing pipe flares. These tools - often around the £150 mark for even a "cheap" one do a beautiful job but can't be effectively used unless held in a bench vice. People like us "driveway grease monkeys" need something much more portable and preferably usable to flare a cut end still on the car. The big problem with this is that most of the cheaper tools simply can't deal with the original steel pipes on the car - although pretty much all will do copper pipe and many can do the slightly harder cupro nickel (Kunifer) which I prefer to use. Many many years ago I bought, largely in ignorance, what has turned out to be an excellent tool. I'll post some pictures to illustrate, it's the one with the looped red handle.
It's not very often that I need to flare steel tubing but it's handy to be able to do this when splicing in to a good section of existing manufacturer's pipe were only a small section, often at the wheel end of a pipe, is actually corroded. Most MOT testers will allow one splice per length of pipe I find. This red loop handled tool does this splendidly and must have done hundreds of flares in copper and Kunifer (I use copper for short convoluted runs, maybe down a radius arm for instance because it's easy to form bends in and I use Kunifer for longer runs like front to rear pipes as it's much less prone to sagging.
Then, absolute disaster, I went to do a brake pipe one day and couldn't find the flaring tool! I searched the garage from top to bottom, and I've got so much "useful stuff" in my garage that was no mean feat! But, no sign of it so I had to buy a new tool! The one I bought was the big one with the red scissor like handles - top one in the first picture in the sequence - as it was on a special offer and got good reviews. It's not a "bad" tool but it's quite a bit more unwieldy than my old tool. It did the job though. Having owned it for a number of years now there is one thing I don't like about it though. Look at the smallest forming end - which is at the right hand end of the strip of forming tools you can see in the second picture - (by the way this tool is supposed to be able to do a wide range of pipe sizes. I've only ever used it on the smallest 3/16 inch pipe and if you're only ever likely to flare brake pipe with it you don't need all the rest) Can you see there's a long "spike"? this goes down the tube and helps to keep the die centred as it forms the flare. Actually this helps it to make a very nice even flare - something a lot of the cheaper tools struggle with - but, because the pipe folds over inwards on it as the No1 (bubble) flare is formed the pipe grips this spike quite firmly and makes it quite difficult to subsequently withdraw the die from the formed end of the pipe. Also, because you inevitably end up levering at it with a screwdriver, there's a very real danger of breaking it off and leaving it in the pipe! Interestingly perhaps, I've come across Ebay ads for replacement dies for this tool? If you find a good offer on one though I wouldn't discount it as it makes a nice flare, just be careful withdrawing that die strip. I've never tried it on the steel tube so can't comment on that.
Then, probably about 18 months later, I was "stirring" my garden shed around looking for something else and there, lying on top of a very old Ransomes cylinder mower which is an ongoing restoration project, I came across my old friend the looped red handled flaring tool! I have no recollection of ever putting it down there and I can think of no reason why I would even take it into the shed, but what the hell, Hallelujah, I've got it back! As I greatly prefer to use the loop handled tool the scissor handled tool has now become a backup tool "just in case" and lives in it's box on the shelf.
Nearly up to date now and I've been concerned for some time now that I've been using the old loop handled tool to make flares for use with metric tube nuts. This old tool is specifically for making the old SAE 3/16" type flares but still works very well with the virtually identical modern 4.75mm size. The more modern Metric "DIN" flares are very similar but the back end of the flare, which rests against the tube nut, is at right angles to the pipe wall whereas the SAE flare has this back face at an angle. The nuts are formed to take account of this and it's always niggled at me just a little that the metric nut, if used with an SAE flared pipe, might cut through the pipe due to it's - the nut - relatively "sharp" corner shape. I have to say I've been making flares for metric nuts with my SAE tool for many years and never had a problem and I think this is because the soft copper/Kunifer is easily reformed by the nut as it's tightened? However it continued to worry me so, about a month ago, when I was about to tackle a brake rebuild on the back brakes of our Panda and saw the very corroded state of the pipes, I decided to relent and buy a proper DIN flaring tool. Because the old looped handle tool has worked so well I decided to look for a similar design and finally found the one with the black handle shown in the pictures. Frost Restorations, amongst others, sell them and I've been warned there are counterfeit examples around so beware. They actually state it flares steel tube too! I've only so far done a couple of flares with it but it's just like using my old loop handled friend and I'm delighted with it! Look carefully at the pipe holding dies and you can clearly see the difference in the shape of the flare formed.
There is one difference between them though and that is that the old tool's forcing screw is separate from the forming dies so the forming die does not rotate against the pipe during use (I lube the threads and dies with moly grease and put a wee "dod" of red rubber grease on the forming face of the die which seems to help things not to wear and eases the force needed when forming. The new tool's die is a one piece item with the forcing screw so rotates against the pipe end whilst forming the flare, which the old loop handled tools dies do not. I was a little worried this might lead to scoring etc of the newly formed flare, but no! It looks just as good as a flare formed with the old tool. I wouldn't do it without a "wee dod" of rubber or maybe silicon grease - or anything seal friendly - on the forming end though. Also, because of the design of the tools the forming die is withdrawn axially in line with the pipe bore so there is virtually zero risk of damage to the wee "pip" in the middle which enters the pipe bore during forming.
So, there you are, bearing in mind I've not extensively used other designs, but have seen some other peoples disasters, I can heartily recommend this design of tool and the fact that it's easily used on the vehicle. Must say though, I really lust after the Sykes Pickavant hand held jobbie though: https://www.sykes-pickavant.com/products/braking-tools/on-car just can't justify the price to "her indoors"!
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