Dudesesses

[happy-diver]

Background

Bank Bottles

Fittings

Tubing

Everything Else

Results

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Can't remember when I came across that page, but now I can put a name to the work. Good stuff, great rundown.

I do not see anywhere where you stated which furling flaring tool you use for the SS tubing?

 

[Wookie]

Can't remember when I came across that page, but now I can put a name to the work. Good stuff, great rundown.

I do not see anywhere where you stated which furling tool you use for the SS tubing?

I’ve worked a ton of stainless tubing. I don’t understand the term furling. If you mean flaring, I have a $4500 tool for heavy wall up to 2”, but those fittings are double ferrule fittings, swagelok or hoke or similar. No flare needed. I prefer jic ends, but that’s not what we have here.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I’ve worked a ton of stainless tubing. I don’t understand the term furling. If you mean flaring, I have a $4500 tool for heavy wall up to 2”, but those fittings are double ferrule fittings, swagelok or hoke or similar. No flare needed. I prefer jic ends, but that’s not what we have here.

I don't know... I've heard them called flaring or furlers by some old timers. Not looking to spend $4500 either

Fixed my hillbilly vocabulary up top!

 

[Gone for diving]

furlers

I call furlers the compression sleeve in compression fittings that usually gets used on copper tubing, but not rated for very high pressures.... but occasionally some fixes a brake line with it, and I have never seen one blow apart... but that's another story...

They often are used on oil furnace fuel line tubing.
Truck airbrake lines

 

[Wookie]

Ok then. The use of ferrule fittings means you don’t have to flare the tubing. I only have the $4500 machine because I was rebuilding a hydraulic crane from scratch. When I build a fill station, I use exclusively ferrule fittings.

Ferrule fittings are about 3x the cost, but are extremely forgiving compared to flaring JIC tube. JIC are infinitely reusable, ferrule are used once, although you can buy plain nuts and ferrules if you have some fittings. I am blessed that a buddy who used to work for BASF refinery collected about $300k worth of old (and new) “unneeded and surplus” swagelok 1/4” fittings and gave them to me. I’ll never buy fittings again in this life.

 

[Gone for diving]

I know when i was an apprentice we replumbed a fertilizer plant, we used
Ss tubing. And we used a special furlers and nut that bit into the ss and was a JIC end.
Don't know why we didn't flare it... maybe the type of ss????

 

[Wookie]

Ah. Ferrules. You used ferrules, furlers are what roll up sails on fancy sailboats.

 

[Akimbo]

And we used a special furlers and nut that bit into the ss and was a JIC end.
Don't know why we didn't flare it... maybe the type of ss????

Semantics: JIC fittings are defined by the SAE J514 and MIL-DTL-18866 standards and require fairing the tubing.

---

Compression fittings, like the Swagelok brand, use one or two-piece ferrules behind the nut that "bite" into the tubing.

---

The advantage of compression fittings are they do not require flaring tools. Flaring harder materials like stainless is much more difficult than Copper tubing. The advantages of 37° JIC fittings is they have much lower insertion and seal more reliably on gases like Helium.

Insertion matters because your tubing runs and mounting have to accommodate assembly. My absolute favorite fittings are flat-faced O-ring sealed fittings like CPV:

The BIG problem with flat-faced O-ring sealed fittings is tail-pieces have to be welded or braised, in addition to being more expensive. CPV pipe fittings are all over US nuclear submarines. I don't think they still make them but we used a lot of their tubing fittings that were rated to 6000 PSI/414 Bar. They sealed every time on pure Helium when made up hand tight.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Ok...so still begs the question what inexpensive tool would flare 37° stainless tubing that anyone here would recommend?

My nomenclature was derived from my experience with gas lines... and I'm a redneck