Warning: skip the $60 crimp tool kit, a Harbor Freight run in Toledo fixed my brake lines for $18

Ruby Grant · 2026-09-20T14:20:03.130605+00:00

Everyone on the forums told me I needed the fancy flaring kit with the hydraulic press, so I almost dropped $60 at the auto parts store in Toledo last spring. A retired machinist at the counter laughed and handed me an $18 loaner flare tool plus a $6 coil of copper-nickel line, and said the tool kit was mostly for people who never measure twice. I cut and flared six lines on my 1998 Ranger in my gravel driveway with nothing but that tool, a tubing cutter, and a bench vise bolted to a 2x6. Three of the flares leaked on the first try because I rushed, but redid them and the pedal has been hard for 8,000 miles now. Anyone else running cheap copper-nickel line instead of the pre-bent steel kits, or did I just get lucky?

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Warning: skip the $60 crimp tool kit, a Harbor Freight run in Toledo fixed my brake lines for $18 | Broke But Building - HW Forums