Old Copper pipe.

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Old Copper pipe.

Postby jasonc2861 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:50 am

Hey silly question,I can get some copper pipe from an old oil heating unit at work.was wondering,can I use this stuff?can it be cleaned?,and yer yer,I don't want to poison myself etc,cheers in advance. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Old Copper pipe.

Postby snapperhead » Thu Jul 11, 2013 6:57 am

Copper is copper, so as long as it can be cleaned back to new, it can be used. Fire is a great way to turn the oil back into carbon, then mild acids and mechanical scrubbing may get the residues off. If you arent confident that you could clean up the internal bore to a sanitary state, what about cashing it in at the scrap yard and buying some clean, unused pipe back off them with the proceeds ?
I used electrolytic cleaning in a large bath of washing soda, to get the socks and underpants flavour out of my old laundry coppers. A bath of sodium carbonate solution (washing soda), thick steel plate anode in the bath connected to the positive terminal of a battery charger, negative terminal connected to the piece you want to clean. Its a very non-labour intensive way to clean copper. (just dont let the steel anode touch the copper as you will melt your charger)
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Old Copper pipe.

Postby Sam. » Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:42 am

Just be wary if you are using a piece that has been previously soldered together. Depending on age it may have been lead based.

If you are using pieces without soldered parts happy cleaning.

I prefer new as I shudder to think what may have run through old pipe
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Re: Old Copper pipe.

Postby 1 2many » Thu Jul 11, 2013 4:23 pm

snapperhead wrote:Copper is copper, so as long as it can be cleaned back to new, it can be used. Fire is a great way to turn the oil back into carbon, then mild acids and mechanical scrubbing may get the residues off. If you arent confident that you could clean up the internal bore to a sanitary state, what about cashing it in at the scrap yard and buying some clean, unused pipe back off them with the proceeds ?
I used electrolytic cleaning in a large bath of washing soda, to get the socks and underpants flavour out of my old laundry coppers. A bath of sodium carbonate solution (washing soda), thick steel plate anode in the bath connected to the positive terminal of a battery charger, negative terminal connected to the piece you want to clean. Its a very non-labour intensive way to clean copper. (just dont let the steel anode touch the copper as you will melt your charger)


:text-+1:
Electrolytic cleaning works a treat and that would be my first choice for cleaning , i used the same method on a box of rusty nuts and bolts that had thick rust on them and it stripped it back to bare steel in a short time with no effort and no mechanical abrasived or dust, it will just do it thing.

Cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Old Copper pipe.

Postby jasonc2861 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:17 pm

Ok fellas thanks for that,,might try the electrolysis method,,see how it goes,ill make sure no soldered parts as it would be at least 15 years old.if that doesn't work I might just try the swapping method at the scrapyard.thanks again! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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