Hydraulic hoses, crimp hoses using a garage press?

You can buy kits for around £100

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173810486326?hash=item2877e98c36:g:7A4AAOSwr5tg4qp8

Keep thinking about one to make my own air con lines.

Probably not hugely relevant, but I recently made some dies to crimp hose ferrules, but only for oil and petrol lines, so no pressure at all really.

What I can say though, is it went ok, but not as nicely as I'd hoped. The results should have been neater.
Made me realise I wouldn't want to try doing anything with safety critical pressure capability without alot more learning on how to make the dies.

Nothing about it was hard though, just the ferrules don't necessarily react how id expect when crimped.

A big vice.
Squeezing them wasn't the issue. In fact, I think it would be easier to get them neat if the ferrules were thicker walled and harder. The stainless ferrules were easier than the smaller brass ones.

The dies were made from blocks of steel, step drilled from each side so you have a ring in the middle. That should give a nice circular crimp all the way around the ferrule. But they want to pinch the sides, so I chambered them. You have to sort of half/ three quarters crimp them, then turn them 90 degrees and go again.
It just doesn't give as neat a result as I'd anticipated.
I'm sure, with a bit more knowledge of how deep to crimp, chamber amounts, and radius's of the ridge would get them neater.
Not sure info have any pics, but I can take some if you want.

Indeed, and having all those segments means your not squashing the ferrule from 2 sides like you are with a simple split die. That's why proper crimpers make a very tidy job and don't pinch the ferrule like a 2 piece die.
Although mine seem fine for the fuel duty they were intended for, I couldn't say for certain that there is even crimping pressure all round.

It didn't take long to make the dies, rig up a pressure test and do a few test crimps, see when they fail.

Took some pics of what I did.
These are the dies I made



The small thin brass ferrules didn't come out very neatly



The larger stainless ones worked much better




With more work on the dies I'm sure better results could be had, but I've no idea if something that would hold pressure could be achieved.