Mastercool Hydraulic flaring tool, Opinions?

[bimmer630]

The guy I work for bought the nice Mastercool Hydraulic tubing flaring kit and I thought the thing was awesome when I saw it, but after using it for a few jobs, ive noticed some issues.

The two halfs of the Block that the tubing is "clamped" into the tool with, dont seem to clamp together very well, no matter how tight i crank on the t handle, and the flares always come out fishy.

anybody else have this problem?

 

[oilslick]

I was hoping to get a review by someone on this board of this tool, any other info would be apprec. before I buy one!

 

[wafrederick]

Have one at work,great tool and time saver.Worth the money too.I never had problems with bad flares yet.Has to be centered right and the line has to flush with the die.If you do a lot of brake lines,this tool is worth it and you won't go back to the manual version.

 

[Danglerb]

My friend bought one for his shop after a string of others failed to work with the grade of stainless tubing he uses, and it flat works, perfect flairs etc.

Any issues and I suspect something is wrong.

 

[rodm1]

I've had problems with there dies. But it's a grate tool I would get a tool truck one for the warranty on the dies.

p.s. I just whose thinking that my tubing cutter could be the problem (china). My brother whose over and just happened to have a new Imperial cutter. It seems to have fixed my problem with work hardening of the pipe.

 

[rodm1]

My friend bought one for his shop after a string of others failed to work with the grade of stainless tubing he uses, and it flat works, perfect flairs etc.

Any issues and I suspect something is wrong.

What brand of tubing cutter he uses?

 

[44boggers]

i had trouble with this flaring tool for a couple days, until another mechanic noticed that my cuts were not good enough. If you tried to cute the tube to fast by driving down the blade to hard it wont flare correctly, i spent about another 30 seconds cutting the tube with lighter pressure and great flares ever since.

 

[srmofo]

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45617&highlight=mastercool

I love mine. its still going strong after all these years and Ive yet to have a single issue from it. I havent even broken one of the ******* off of the dies yet

Somethings not right if you're having problems.

 

[ricleh]

Great flaring tool.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

wish I had one

 

[Brad54]

I had one, and traded it for a nice ShopFox horizontal bandsaw.

I couldn't make decent flares with it.

However, I've NEVER made a bad flare with my snap-on/Blue Point manual flaring kit, and I've done several cars with it over the years.

After letting the hydraulic flaring tool sit on the shelf for years, I traded it and am very happy.

-Brad

 

[4x4gearhead]

That flaring tool makes a perfect flare with no cracks, every time. I dont have one but god damnit one day I will, I cant count how many times my OTC cheapy kit has cracked my lines or made a crooked flare. Every time this happens I think of the mastercool hydraulic unit and how I wouldnt spend so much time making lines.

 

[bimmer630]

Maybe its the speed of my cut, as mentioned above. Ill try that and report.

Also with the dies not seating fully against each other, Ive gotten some "seams" on the back side (fitting) side of the flare, which prevents the fitting from sitting flush against the flare

 

[Strouty]

I think if you take the extra time on the cutting, I also de-bur it a little. I have not used mine as much as most people, but it was very nice for doing my fuel injection flares.

 

[Dahund]

I'm a retired Air Force Mechanic. You should make sure you have a square cut, deburr the inside of the tube and sand the edge with fine sand paper till it is shinny. This will give you perfect flares every time, also read the directions and follow them to a tee. I have done this on aircraft and all my flairs are tested and hold up to 5000 psi.

 

[Carquest]

Excellent tool, only issues I’ve had were operator error. Nice to be able to do bubble flares and the gm type fuel lines(can’t remember the proper name). I use it fairly infrequently in my parts store, but worth every penny when you need it IMO


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