Tube flaring bit - GIF

**Altair** · Aug 17, 2020, 09:51 PM

Tube flaring bit.

Previously:

Tube flaring pliers - photo
Tube straightener - GIF
Copper tubing bender - GIF
Pipe flange spreading tool - GIF

**mwmkravchenko** · Aug 18, 2020, 08:12 PM

I think I will be making this! Thanks.

**metric_taper** · Aug 18, 2020, 08:28 PM

I looked at a set of them last year, pricey. Seems easy enough to make from tool steel and then harden. Also saw a youtube video of a HVAC tech that drilled a hole in the side of a suction manifold, and used this tool to make a raised surface, in this case he was installing a thermostatic expansion valve reference pressure tube, on a large system. This produced a stronger hole to braze the tube into.

**mlochala** · Aug 19, 2020, 07:35 AM

I wonder if this would work on EMT electrical conduit. I will be making one of these as well.

**mklotz** · Aug 19, 2020, 08:07 AM

In the video it appears that the pipe is handheld while being flared. I wonder if that is true? Seems as if the tool would generate a fierce torque on the tube.

**katy** · Aug 19, 2020, 08:24 AM

That's a swage not a flare.

Tube flaring bit - GIF-swage-vs-flare.jpg

**metric_taper** · Aug 19, 2020, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by mlochala

I wonder if this would work on EMT electrical conduit. I will be making one of these as well.

I don't think so, as you need a soft drawn copper for this to work, i.e. it will not work in hard drawn copper. In steel, it will spin and make heat. The other issue is the EMT connectors provide ground bonding between pieces, if you were to swage them, you would have to braze the pieces, and the zinc oxide that is part of the galvanized plating is not good to breath in.

**suther51** · Aug 19, 2020, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by metric_taper

I don't think so, as you need a soft drawn copper for this to work, i.e. it will not work in hard drawn copper. In steel, it will spin and make heat. The other issue is the EMT connectors provide ground bonding between pieces, if you were to swage them, you would have to braze the pieces, and the zinc oxide that is part of the galvanized plating is not good to breath in.

Aside from original use of emt, simple socket joints would have no end of usefulness in emt.

**metric_taper** · Aug 19, 2020, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by suther51

Aside from original use of emt, simple socket joints would have no end of usefulness in emt.

I did not articulate that very well, but that was my point. I can't think of a non electrical use where swaging the pieces together would be of value, but mlochala may have some application.

I have the old style swaging tool where you use your flaring block to hold the copper tube, then wack the swage tool with a hammer. The benefit of this tool is it appears to burnish the copper. Where I've seen them used is on youtube videos where the HVAC tech is replacing compressors or filter dryers, and fitting in the tubing stubs to the existing system without using couplings.

**mwmkravchenko** · Aug 20, 2020, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by metric_taper

I don't think so, as you need a soft drawn copper for this to work, i.e. it will not work in hard drawn copper. In steel, it will spin and make heat. The other issue is the EMT connectors provide ground bonding between pieces, if you were to swage them, you would have to braze the pieces, and the zinc oxide that is part of the galvanized plating is not good to breath in.

You can soften hard drawn copper by heating it up red hot and cooling it in water. I do it quite often when I am running pipes in weird places.