Making a bubble flare with a double flare tool

[STREAKER123]

HaHa rented one of these kits from autozone and the end piece is bent. Have to get another one :)

[JMyalls1]

i like the buuble flare trick, but i found it hard to do also, but then i used the bubble end first, like you was starting to do a double flare, get your bubble, THEN turn it around to the flat side and finish your bubble, i found it alot easier.

[Paigeshusband]

I used to be able to do Bubble flares off the Autozone OEM tools. But the newest generation are made like crap. The arbor breaks so easily, and while it does work to have a nice grip on the brake line, the arbor's aren't milled properly to form a nice bubble. Broke 2 arbors, the 2nd one breaking on perfectly straight line, that should never have broken.

[samsung900df]

Won't work for many. Cheats the tool ...the insert shaft is above the surface allowing it to go lopsided. After awhile its BACKSIDE gets its dimple elongated. The screw down taper piece will roll lopsided following the lopsided dimple = = lopsided bubbles. Workaround: Shove 3 layers of papertowel between dimple and the screw down taper. BTW to place tube in vise: Loosen all the way far away thumb, tighten all the way close thumb, THEN tighten far away thumbscrew.

[CoolasIce2]

I tried (numerous times) to make a bubble flair using a similar tool from harbor Freight. The "bubble" came out flat instead of round. Perhaps the HF 3/16 die is different from the one shown here. I had to give up on the bubble ,installed a double flair line and used a double flare union to join the line.

[Dap8998]

This is great info thank you very much. I am replacing the rear brake lines on my lumina which have bubble flares. I went to a few stores to see if they had a bubble flaring tool but no luck. I was doing a search to see where I could order the tool when your video came up. Thanks!

[Paigeshusband]

@Dap8998 They also have some nice one's from Sears.com. 

[advacoRRR]

Why am I having such a hard time with this? I tighten down the fuel line as hard as I can, but the line will just push through the tool before it bubbles. Even if I have it down VERY tight??/

[mainejunker]

@advacoRRR The tubing lines I used are very soft, so they shape easy. Maybe your material is too hard. I used PolyArmor from autozone. It's also plastic coated to prevent rusting. Seems to work very well.

[advacoRRR]

@mainejunker I found out what the problem is; I was using a cheap flare tool from one of the car parts chains. I went to Home Depot and bought a "Heavy Duty" flaring tool for $25 and it does bubble flares perfectly.

[joeyser]

Very cool, thanks for the excellent info. Now to shovel under the car so I can get this done!

[richard33043]

ingenious! thanks you

[DoctorD907]

Thanks for the great tip! I have the ISO bubble kit but havent been happy with the results. This works good for me.

[827rover]

if this is truly so easy why there are separate tools specifically for bubble flares?

[sassy1942]

great video. I needed bubble flares and I was looking at Goggle and this video popped up. awesome and it works

[HarrySach]

thats it? wow, thanks!

[muskiejack]

Thanks for the helpful video. Do you know if you should have the tubing slightly less than 1/4" proud of the bar for all sizes of tubing or would that distance vary with the size of the tubing? I'm doing a job tomorrow and I tried your method on 5/16" tubing with the tubing sticking out as you recommend (slightly less than 1/4". It came out OK but the end of the flare is flat unlike the nice crowned shape that you made.

[MudRFunR]

Thanks for posting this! My flaring tool is similar to your's I had no idea that I could do this.

[TheJazzbow]

The O'Reilly Auto Parts store will loan the flaring tool out for 48 hours - with deposit.

[ThomasHocum]

Great Video. Never would of thought of trying it that way, just learned a new way to save a little money. Thanks for the video.

[commando7144]

worked great thx! i wonder why the parts stores don`t have adapters that go from bubble flare to bubble for the larger threads on the master cylinder instead of bubble flare to double.or even rent the bubble flare kit

[ThomasHocum]

@commando7144

Auto Zone actually just started to carry that style of adapter, they don't have all sizes available but I've been reassured that it's soon to happen.