Best Flaring tool for 6mm Brake pipe

[reb78]

I have got one of this type.
View attachment 504963It is NOT the one pictured though. It is a Blue Point one (Snap On ?) I have had it a long time, 30 plus years. Makes really good flares every time. It is actually for metric pipes, but does imperial no problem, although it leave slight grooving where the pipe is gripped.

I am using it at the moment to replace the 6mm brake pipes on my Unimog (bar steward job) with 1/4 Kunifer pipe (don't like copper). Always wanted a Sykes one but could never justify it to myself. Those Sealey ones and similar, that look like a pair of grips, with the dies on a strip are absolute rubbish.

Ah - now that was the Sealey type I used before the one I linked to above and it was truly awful - nothing I produced would have been safe to use so i gave it back to the person I borrowed it from with some concern about their own brakes! Only saying as i suspect there are quality and far eastern versions of that kit and outcomes match the quality of manufacture.

 

[willie.macleod]

I am using it at the moment to replace the 6mm brake pipes on my Unimog (bar steward job) with 1/4 Kunifer pipe (don't like copper). Always wanted a Sykes one but could never justify it to myself. Those Sealey ones and similar, that look like a pair of grips, with the dies on a strip are absolute rubbish.

The type that look like a pair of grips with dies on a strip aren't all rubbish, I got a set when they started circulating 20 odd years ago and they were great. Used a set that looked exactly the same as mine at my brothers garage last week and they just didn't work right at all, couldn't grip the pipe correctly. So somewhere along the line someone has screwed up with copying the original design.

For @winchman and the search for Sykes dies you can check pricing for the Sealey badged version which is PFT07 at https://www.sealey.co.uk/spare-parts

 

[Anguz]

Can you buy the sykes dies as spares?

 

[OJCar]

Can you buy the sykes dies as spares?

For Sykes Pickavant 270 Series (cam type)
Spares made by Sykes

Retail on e-bay

Sykes 6mm SAE Die

Sykes 6mm OP1

Sykes 6mm OP2

Total for all three parts £30.52

NOT Sykes 6mm DIN Die & OP1 £22.17
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/197152544415

NOT Sykes 6mm SAE Die & OP1 & OP2 £22.17
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276635078990

 

[Smallfry]

The type that look like a pair of grips with dies on a strip aren't all rubbish, I got a set when they started circulating 20 odd years ago and they were great. Used a set that looked exactly the same as mine at my brothers garage last week and they just didn't work right at all, couldn't grip the pipe correctly. So somewhere along the line someone has screwed up with copying the original design.

For @winchman and the search for Sykes dies you can check pricing for the Sealey badged version which is PFT07 at https://www.sealey.co.uk/spare-parts

This is what happens when things are copied, and done down to a price.
My BiL bought a Sealey one last year when I wouldn't lend him mine ....... He will lose the dies in minutes. It wouldn't even grip the pipe properly.

 

[Bsmith]

I was stuck one time for making a 6mm diesel pipe for a tractor, so I bought one of these.... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36388287...ldMpjq+6HeOh+CeElfN7b6JDY=|tkp:BlBMUMLm1tyDZg
It flared the ends ok and the pipe has been a sucess although there is not a lot of pressure on it, being lift pump to inj pump pipe.

 

[winchman]

I have got one of this type.
View attachment 504963It is NOT the one pictured though. It is a Blue Point one (Snap On ?) I have had it a long time, 30 plus years. Makes really good flares every time. It is actually for metric pipes, but does imperial no problem, although it leave slight grooving where the pipe is gripped.

I am using it at the moment to replace the 6mm brake pipes on my Unimog (bar steward job) with 1/4 Kunifer pipe (don't like copper). Always wanted a Sykes one but could never justify it to myself. Those Sealey ones and similar, that look like a pair of grips, with the dies on a strip are absolute rubbish.

Now that’s strange as that’s exactly what we are doing on wincboys 404 unimog

 

[Smallfry]

Now that’s strange as that’s exactly what we are doing on wincboys 404 unimog

Well I'm blowed. Its a small world. Mine is a 406, although there is a 404 hidden in the bushes here.

What would be really useful is a one handed bender. 1/4 Kunifer is hard to manipulate.

 

[winchman]

Well I'm blowed. Its a small world. Mine is a 406, although there is a 404 hidden in the bushes here.

What would be really useful is a one handed bender. 1/4 Kunifer is hard to manipulate.

What are you doing with the 404?
I have had a good root and I have two Sykes 270 flaring tools so one will be sold to pay for the dies we need for the other, I also have an older sykes tool the 270 predecessor? Sadly no 6mm tooling. All the lines are 6mm apart from the master cylinder reservoir thats bigger but ok.
Found an Ebay seller who has copy dies etc to fit the sykes stuff still £30 for the bits I need though.

 

[Matchless]

When I was an apprentice at Bernard Wallace Roots garage in Markhouse Road Walthamstow, age 16 they stripped the thread on the SP brake pipe flaring tool, the whole kit was thrown into the bin, I fished it out of the bin and my father (or probably Fuller Electric) made me a new nut, I still use it 55 years later, it did a lot of pipes when I owned the garage!

 

[Smallfry]

What are you doing with the 404?
I have had a good root and I have two Sykes 270 flaring tools so one will be sold to pay for the dies we need for the other, I also have an older sykes tool the 270 predecessor? Sadly no 6mm tooling. All the lines are 6mm apart from the master cylinder reservoir thats bigger but ok.
Found an Ebay seller who has copy dies etc to fit the sykes stuff still £30 for the bits I need though.

Nothing at the moment. Actually it belongs to my BiL, but he lost interest in a few years ago. It is fitter with a Toyota Landcruiser engine, straight 6 diesel. Has never run properly and smokes a lot.

Good if you can get the Sykes tool working for almost nothing.

 

[winchman]

For Sykes Pickavant 270 Series (cam type)
Spares made by Sykes

Retail on e-bay

Sykes 6mm SAE Die

Sykes 6mm OP1

Sykes 6mm OP2

Total for all three parts £30.52

NOT Sykes 6mm DIN Die & OP1 £22.17
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/197152544415

NOT Sykes 6mm SAE Die & OP1 & OP2 £22.17
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276635078990

Thanks for this much appreciated the issue it has raised for me is should I be doing SAE or Din Flares?

 

[OJCar]

should I be doing SAE or Din Flares?

@8ob

 

[8ob]

@8ob

Din for a Mog

Bob