LEARNING TO PUT A FLARE ON COPPER TUBING

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  COPPER FLARING 101

Here at The Mobile Homestead we like to learn new things and save money by doing things ourselves ...one of the important things we learned to do ourselves is to make a copper flare. This simple skill came in very handy when doing the Propane gas lines in our last Bus Conversion "HOME"....you use the same technique for copper water lines. Here are some pictures of the tools you'll need to put a flare on your Copper tubing and the technique of how this is done. This is simple stuff , just make a bunch of practice Flares before doing it for real and don't be afraid to show them to your local Plumber and ask them if the Flare is a good one.

Here's a Few Tips ...
Any LP GAS appliance you'll install calls for the appropriate sized diameter Gas Line , read the product manual first to find out what size of copper pipe you'll need to run it...and then make that line.
Try to keep your interior LP GAS connections to the minimum...don't use a bunch of tees behind or inside your cabinets .The more interior hidden connections you have in your Rolling Homes makes it much more likely you could have problems with leaks.
You'll be much better off and 100% safer if you install an LP GAS manifold in your your LP Gas tank storage area and then run individual lines off the manifold to each LP Gas Appliance you're installing.
To make things even more efficient and safe , put an on/off valve that's rated for LP gas on each leg of the manifold. This allows you to turn off the gas to an appliance if you need to repair it and still have your other LP Gas stuff running. 
LP GAS MANIFOLDS come in different shapes and sizes and can be picked up at many Plumbing Stores.
Here's a Few Pictures of Manifolds

IF you don't want to install a manifold , you'll still want to keep the interior GAS connections down to an minimum ...The way savvy frugal Converters do this ,is they run the Black Pipe that's used for LP gas lines under their Buses or whatever and put tees on the pipe and then connect their cooper gas lines to the tees. Since they keep this connection outside the rig this is a very safe way to go about this.

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  COPPER FLARING 101