I have not posted to the list in so long! Hello folks! I just trailered my 26 Tollycraft from Minnesota to Portland, OR and am trying to get her seaworthy after several years of neglect on the hard in Minnesota. I bought this boat about 15 years ago when she was 15 years old. I have not invested the necessary $ to keep her in top notch condition and things have slowly deteriorated, as they will. As long as I was boating near home on the Mississippi, it was not much a problem if reliability was less than optimal, but now that I will be on the Pacific coast, I need to bring things up to snuff. The current task is the hydraulic steering. I had a fluid leak at the lower helm and decided to rebuild both helms, flush and refill the system and see. I have a three line Hynautic system. The rebuilds were easy and getting the system back together straightforward. I still have a leak however and need to redo the flare connection on the starboard line on the lower helm. That may have been all I needed in the first place! I am wondering what type of flare tool I need and how much I should pay for a set to do it right. Prices are all over the place. How do I know what degree flare I need. Is it a simple flare, or something more complicated? The copper attaches to a brass fitting attached to the helm. Are the 45 degree standard? How do I know. I may well do more hydraulic work in the future and would not mind springing for a quality tool. Thanks for any help. Jack in Minneapolis (actually in Portland!)

I'm relatively certain that your fittings will be standard 45 deg. flares, the fittings are likely brass with machined (as opposed to forged) flare nuts, with brass flare adapters threaded into the body of the steering components. You can check the angle with a small square in good light. Confirmed that it's a 45, a standard flare tool will work. Having made hundreds of flare joints in my experience, I prefer the flare tool that uses a flare cone on an eccentric. This method rolls the flare in a small area at a time, incrementally forming the flare until the cone centers. It reduces the potential for a crack in the formed flare. Ridge tool makes one, always what I had, but there are others as good. The Ridgid tool has a release that prevents the cone from smashing and distorting the flare. It creates a superior joint. Keep in mind that copper work hardens, so each time you bend or form it, it gets harder and more brittle. If you're re-doing flares, never try to re-form one, cut it off and start over, be sure to remove any burr from the cut, being careful to keep chips away from the work. The cut should be square with no perceptible roll or burr. Use a tubing cutter with a clean wheel and lubricated rollers to avoid any scarring of the surface. If you start with a crappy piece, you can't expect anything other than crappy results. And -- don't forget to slide the flare nut on before you form the flare! You might also want to use new flare nuts, if it's a problem joint, you could use a forged nut, it's heavier and won't distort as quickly, but probably not necessary. As far as using the tool on other hydraulic work, those flares are probably not 45, but most of those flares are not field formed anyway, but use fittings that are swaged to hose, so not really an issue with a flaring tool. On 8/20/2015 1:21 AM, Jack Ray via Trawlers-and-Trawlering wrote: > <snip> > I am wondering what type of flare tool I need and how much I should pay for > a set to do it right. Prices are all over the place. How do I know what > degree flare I need. Is it a simple flare, or something more complicated? > The copper attaches to a brass fitting attached to the helm. Are the 45 > degree standard? How do I know. I may well do more hydraulic work in the > future and would not mind springing for a quality tool. > > > -- > Steve Sipe > Solo 4303 "Maerin" > Middle River, MD >