After spending some time under my 84 Rabbit last night, it looks like I will be making some new hard brake lines.
I've read here about what material tubing to use, and the import of a quality flaring tool.
But how do you straighten the shiny new coil of tubing from the store? I'm not inclined to pay $80 or more for a straightening tool.
Making something to work is not out of the question though.
TIA!
DIY Vise mounted tubing straightener
Not mine, just found it through some googling. Lots of similar setups out there.
Thank you for the link!
I have seen some of those setups, and they don't appear to be hard to make. But I have yet to find any designs that include any dimensions- like spacing between the rollers.
Is it a matter of making something that looks like this and then trial and error until it works?
Not that hard to unroll it adequately straight for a daily driver. Show car stuff, you need the roller thingy.
That one says it's 2.75" between rollers. Seems like a random number, but whatever works! I would think that trial and error is probably the way forward.
what you see in those pics is tubing that is stiffer than coiled tubing, I suggest you use straight legnth's as coiled tubing will stretch in dia.because its not as strong.may as well use copper, the best is stainless and the correct (best)tools,it really isn't hard to do just use the right stuff. and two thoughts about making a tool to straighten bent tubing, It's kinda cheap compaired to what making a tool may cost,and that's about it, they look to be 3 inches apart if the vice jaw's are 4 inches wide
Streetwiseguy wrote: Not that hard to unroll it adequately straight for a daily driver. Show car stuff, you need the roller thingy.
This
You just un roll it the way they rolled it up. You need space to do this. It is a classic case of you can get it ok in a short period of time but take that extra little bit of time and you can get them very strait. The softer copper nickle lines are harder to get strait but for everything else they are better. I find stainless steel to be the easiest to get strait but is harder for everything else.
I just do it slowly by hand.
dropstep wrote: I just do it slowly by hand.
Would you say, at a medium pace?
I use the costly Jegs tool
I love it.
The diy vise version would be my next shop project if it disappeared.
In reply to cmcgregor:
I missed that detail, thank you!
And correct, this is by no means a show car. It just needs to work.
Thanks guys!
I just did this on the Merkur- the Nickel Copper tubing can be straightened by hand pretty easily. This flaring tool has been working well for me.
You could always use an already-straight piece of brake line or a length of same diameter threaded rod to set up the rollers.
I've used this method mostly on 3/16" to 3/8" copper rolls but used it on a bent piece of straight brake line also.
Roll the tubing out of coil onto a flat surface, work bench or floor, straight as possible. Cut to length you'll need. Lay tubing on a clean, flat floor. Start rolling the tubing back and forth slowly w/ the ball of your foot, work the big curves out first. Keep rolling slowly and advancing end to end. It'll get straight but maybe not arrow straight but I've had better results than by just hand straightening.
A flat, soft sole works best, lugged boots not so well. The flatter the floor the better. Waxed tile floors may slip (no traction for tubing), concrete or dirty floors may mar the tubing surface.
The Eastwood ones are still on sale.
I've never used them but it is one I'm considering for the next project.
If I was going to build the vise one, I'd make it so the rollers pretty much touch when closed. Then I'd use shims between the 2 halves depending on what size the tubing was. That way it would be able to be used for more than one thickness.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: I just did this on the Merkur- the Nickel Copper tubing can be straightened by hand pretty easily. This flaring tool has been working well for me.
I saw that- you did a nice job! And I will certainly check out that flaring tool.
Thank you all for the ideas!
Had a feeling this method would exist since it is similar to how I straighten MIG wire to use for TIG welding.
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