Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine May 2022

HVACR NewsMagazine May 2022

Tech News

through the lines to blow out any debris. If you don’t have a means of blowing the burr out, then you’re better off not deburring at all. While it’s good to deburr the copper, try not to overdo it. If you get a little overzealous, you risk thinning out the copper and making a low-quality flare that may crack. To flare the copper, you’ll need to use a flaring tool, whether that be an old-school flaring block, a handheld tool, SPIN drill bits, or a cordless automatic flaring tool. Before flaring the copper with ANY tool, make sure you get the flare nut on. Otherwise, you’ll probably have a hard time getting it on after the flare has been made! Flaring tools

sure you’ve set the proper depth. As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to aim to bring the copper up just a dime’s width above the block to get the proper depth.

Handheld flaring tools

You may also use a handheld flaring tool, something many technicians swear by. These are generally more user-friendly than the flaring blocks, as many have depth

stoppers. However, it’s still possible to overdo your flares if

Flaring blocks

you tighten them down too much. (Although some flare tools, like the Hilmor 1838952, have a ratcheting mechanism that stops the flare process before you can overtighten them. Basically, an orbital cone rolls the flare cone onto the end of the pipe.) When making a flare manually with a block or handheld tool, you may want to add just a drop of refrigerant oil or assembly lubricant to make the surface really smooth.

Flaring blocks are tried-and-true tools that will get the job done, but they also make it easy to mess up if you don’t know what you’re doing. By that, I mean that you’ll need to make