You asked about flare tools - I have had mixed success with the "buy it anywhere flare bars" finding them OK on plain steel lines but not really able to do the job reliably on rigid stainless. Being cheap, I debated for a long time, then I bought
http://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html So far, I'm happy with it. I have done all lines (stainless, a mixture of rigid and coil tube depending on the shape of line I was making) for my truck with the only re-flares being due to having forgotten to put the nut on before flaring. One drawback to this type of flaring tool is the length of line that has to be straight at the flare for the grip blocks to hold (plus the nut). If you aren't in a hurry, watch their web site for a while - they seem to put a lot of their tools on sale in rotation. A similar tool is available from
http://store.fedhillusa.com/flaringtools.aspx (also sell cunifer brake line) for more $, more styles of flare available,not sure if there's a difference in quality/durability.
A good bender also makes a huge difference to how frustrating working with brake lines gets. I am not a fan of the 3 groove "one size does all" sold so many places that distort under load. I bought a couple of different sizes similar to
http://www.newmantools.com/imperial/ser364.htm off ebay and have found them much nicer to use. Again, the only limitation is that there has to be some straight line between the flare and the curve.
I keep getting reminded how much easier and enjoyable it is to work with decent quality tools.
