Make a professional standard brake flarer for £16

[tiddy]

My Mate has a Sykes Pickavant flaring tool, its great but I really wanted my own.

I bought the silverline flaring tool which is crap on so many levels, its going back as it does not produce a flare after 3 hours trying.

So I purchased the Sykes dies for £15 and using my vice made a screw in tool to do the job perfectly, all in it uses 7 pieces of barstock (flat steel) offcuts

Here are some pictures
)
Tool bolted into the vice jaws, vice is a Record 23, a smaller one would also work.

Hope you like it.

The dies needed can be bought from ebay

Op1 and op2, bubble flares and double flares

 

[tiddy]

Tool holder

 

[tiddy]

That is a seriously good idea - my is hat well and truly doffed to you.

for it to work and be a good tool for years the two mounting plates that go into the vice need to be nice and thick, 10-12mm.

You also need to position the die holder as low as you can on the plate( So the brake pipe just clears the vice) this is because when the die forms there is a lever action that you want to minimise on the jaw plates.

Low in the vice

If you can't clamp the pipe clamp former (pipe slips) you may need to dress the two faces of the pipe clamp former on some emery on a flat surface (glass works) unti you get a constant clamp (clamped with a G Clamp), I only had this issue on cunifer but was rectified with the above and a thorough degrease.

Lastly get some good bolts to mount the tool, the countersunk cheesehead ones used to mount the original jaws of the vice will work loose.

Think the record uses UNC for the jaws

If you take this into account when the tool comes together there is no flexing and every flare is a precision action.

 

[tiddy]

3/16 brake flareing die op1 and op2 DIN for volkswagens

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-75MM-DI...637086?hash=item53fa7acb9e:g:lFwAAOxypthRwtnf

OP1

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-16-SAE-...hash=item257cb482f2:m:mgDHkjpDYUaYigFGq1yUBVw

OP2

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-16-SAE-...hash=item2a14ea8109:m:mSFHjyXUv0R9jz4q_M2HpdA

 

[tiddy]

Just got a 2" G clamp with fine thread as the one in the picture was silly big and very coarse square thread.

Lower the better in the vice to avoid levering,saying that when its all bolted to the vice jaws its rock solid.

The op1 and op2 hole in the tool is just a hole rather than threaded
a) I didn't have the correct tap
b) op1 and op2 sit flush with the tool face
c) changing op1 for op2 is quick as opening the vice

 

[tiddy]

Just tried my tool with a new roll of Kunifer

it now produces perfect flares in kunifer every time.

 

[Johnseat]

I'd love someone to come up with a flaring tool which works on the plastic coated steel pipes used in modern vehicles.
The pipes on merc benz vans I work on are as hard as iron and a cheapo standard handheld flaring tool can't grip the pipe tight enough without it slipping.

 

[barracuda816]

Thats a brilliant idea. I think you would be onto a winner knocking a few of these up and selling them.

 

[tiddy]

Thats a brilliant idea. I think you would be onto a winner knocking a few of these up and selling them.

Would be simple enough so long as I could find the jaw hole spacings for various vices, unless that is left to the person to drill

 

[Spark plug]

What a good idea, nice models too, what software are you useing if you don't mind me asking?

 

[tiddy]

What a good idea, nice models too, what software are you useing if you don't mind me asking?

One was solidworks on a mates system, the other with the vice was sketchup as it was free to use, plus lots of models such as the vice (not me)

 

[PSweeney]

Why not have the two pieces locate exactly with dowels and reamed holes, then you can forget the vice fixing ?

 

[AndyStobbs]

I'd love someone to come up with a flaring tool which works on the plastic coated steel pipes used in modern vehicles.
The pipes on merc benz vans I work on are as hard as iron and a cheapo standard handheld flaring tool can't grip the pipe tight enough without it slipping.

I use my vice mounted SP tool. Bit heavy to be holding up under a vehicle so I attach it with a S hook (actually from my scope kit) to a convenient hanging point.
Use 24" stilsons on the flaring tool, to hold against the action of the handle. Bit fiddly and very messy when joining into a 'live' brake pipe, but has worked well enough for me.
I keep looking at the Flaremaster kit, thinking it would be handy but never got around to buying it.

 

[Johnseat]

I use my vice mounted SP tool. Bit heavy to be holding up under a vehicle so I attach it with a S hook (actually from my scope kit) to a convenient hanging point.
Use 24" stilsons on the flaring tool, to hold against the action of the handle. Bit fiddly and very messy when joining into a 'live' brake pipe, but has worked well enough for me.
I keep looking at the Flaremaster kit, thinking it would be handy but never got around to buying it.

I don't have an issue with copper as it's really soft and the cheapo hand held tools grip and flare, it's just the steel pipes.

 

[AndyStobbs]

I don't have an issue with copper as it's really soft and the cheapo hand held tools grip and flare, it's just the steel pipes.

I know what you mean, it works on steel.