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So the reason I moved this thread late is because I couldn't find it the first time. I finally found it a few days ago. As luck would have it I am using my back hoe attachment to dig a French drain in my yard and sprung a leak on a stainless steel hydraulic line. So I took pics as I made a replacement line. This is the first line that I have made in 5 years probably but it worked like a charm. On the loader I made about 25 lines. I used carbon steel tubing and painted them. I had a stick about 6 ft long left that I made this tube out of. My next one will have to come after I buy more tubing.


When I looked around trying to get tubes made for my loader it was going to cost me a couple thousand dollars to have all of them made. This tool has literally saved me probably $2,000 dollars. Probably 100 on this one line this week.

This is what I'm working on:


One of the tubes in the middle was leaking in the 2" radius bend.


Removed end arm and bucket so the line can be removed from the machine.


So first is to bend the tube to the desired route. I use a harbor freight tubing bender to bend the tubes. This bender is about 7 years old and stays bolted to my welding table. It has dies for 3/8, 1/2 and 5/8 tubing. All that I have ever tried is 1/2. I did buy a stick of 3/4 tubing but I never made a flare for it.

Removed the tubing and laid out the tube for bending. I didn't take a before pic so here is the finished profile.


The frame of my tubing flare is 1" thick. This means that I have to have about 2" after the end of a bend to make a flare. This can be a problem. First you have to put on the nut, then the flare cup, sorry for the terminology. After the flare nut you clamp the tube in the holder leaving about 3/16 sticking out.

Used deburring tool to clean up the inside of the tube before flaring


Pic of flare clamp


Clamp tube into the holder. Sometimes the tube will slip when pushing on it. I will cut a small piece of sand paper and wrap the tube. This provides enough friction to get the tube to flare.


Mount the frame in a vise. Tighten the clamp until the flare is the same diameter as the outside of the cut circle. If you get it too big the nut won't go over it.








Since I clamp so hard on the tube sometimes the flare sleeve won't slide up. I turned the threads off this fitting. I put the nut in the vice and gently tap the flare until the flare sleve slides all the way up and the fitting is done.

[img]https://i610.photobucket.com/a...ol/20190324_204529_zps85vp8yj5.jpg[/img]

Now flip and repeat. Make sure you put the nut and sleve on before you do the other side. I made a couple for the loader that only have one nut...that will make you mad.

Hope this helps.

GatorS