DGersic
Well-known member
Last week was spent at my Jersey Shore cottage getting it ready for the summer. Some planned repairs, several unplanned repairs. One of which was plumbing.
I don’t do a lot of copper, but that’s what the cottage is plumbed with. It’s late 1940s stuff, but has been modified over the years. Here I’m in what I believe to be original 1948 stuff, where it joins a modified section. I don’t know who did this, why, or when, or what it looked like before they did it.
The water supply comes up out of the slab on the right, and has a shut off valve. That looks newer that 1948, so was probably replaced at some point. The 90* fitting is at a weird angle, about 20* to the wall. That seems wrong to me, makes everything else much more difficult. The T goes up to the kitchen sink. Then it needed to re-join the original house plumbing. Two street 45* fittings, one of which is swagged in to the old plumbing, which has been bent to make it fit. The old pipe continues left, along the wall, and eventually to a 90* running up the wall to the water heater.
Turning on the water (we drain it for the winter), I got a leak at that swagged joint with the street 45.
I tried to add some solder to the joint, but that made it worse. i didn’t expect that to work, but it seemed worth a try. It had to come apart.
Because the left side is anchored in to a wall, and the right side is anchored in to the slab, I could not separate the leaking joint. I had to cut the old pipe. I moved over to an area that would be easier to work on, behind the stove, and cut it there. That’s where the real fun starts.
Whatever this old copper pipe (tubing?) is, it’s not modern standard 1/2”. It’s just a bit larger. I didn’t have anything more accurate than a tape measure, but the tubing OD is about the same as the OD of a standard 1/2” fitting. Maybe 1/32” less.
Naturally, the box stores have nothing that fit here. A local hardware store that has everything, had nothing. They suggested a plumbing supply company. Plumbing supply had nothing, but an older than me plumber picking up supplies thought that it might be “bendable type L”. His only suggestion was to sand down the OD until it fit, jam it on, and solder it. Or maybe try an HVAC company.
There are T and 90 fittings on this stuff that are original to the house, so whatever this is, it used to be normal. Normal has changed. Since I couldn’t get a proper fitting, I had to get creative.
I found that Home Depot sell a Husky branded copper tubing expander, and the local store had two in stock.
I got it, and a handful of hubless 1/2” couplings. I annealed one, and stretched it to fit over the old pipe. It’s no longer truly hubless.
After cleaning up the old 45* joint as best I could with sandpaper, I added flux and resoldered that joint. More flux and solder, and my modified coupling was in place. No leaks. Probably will outlast me.
But I’m now really curious to identify this mystery pipe or tubing. What is it?
I don’t do a lot of copper, but that’s what the cottage is plumbed with. It’s late 1940s stuff, but has been modified over the years. Here I’m in what I believe to be original 1948 stuff, where it joins a modified section. I don’t know who did this, why, or when, or what it looked like before they did it.
The water supply comes up out of the slab on the right, and has a shut off valve. That looks newer that 1948, so was probably replaced at some point. The 90* fitting is at a weird angle, about 20* to the wall. That seems wrong to me, makes everything else much more difficult. The T goes up to the kitchen sink. Then it needed to re-join the original house plumbing. Two street 45* fittings, one of which is swagged in to the old plumbing, which has been bent to make it fit. The old pipe continues left, along the wall, and eventually to a 90* running up the wall to the water heater.
Turning on the water (we drain it for the winter), I got a leak at that swagged joint with the street 45.
I tried to add some solder to the joint, but that made it worse. i didn’t expect that to work, but it seemed worth a try. It had to come apart.
Because the left side is anchored in to a wall, and the right side is anchored in to the slab, I could not separate the leaking joint. I had to cut the old pipe. I moved over to an area that would be easier to work on, behind the stove, and cut it there. That’s where the real fun starts.
Whatever this old copper pipe (tubing?) is, it’s not modern standard 1/2”. It’s just a bit larger. I didn’t have anything more accurate than a tape measure, but the tubing OD is about the same as the OD of a standard 1/2” fitting. Maybe 1/32” less.
Naturally, the box stores have nothing that fit here. A local hardware store that has everything, had nothing. They suggested a plumbing supply company. Plumbing supply had nothing, but an older than me plumber picking up supplies thought that it might be “bendable type L”. His only suggestion was to sand down the OD until it fit, jam it on, and solder it. Or maybe try an HVAC company.
There are T and 90 fittings on this stuff that are original to the house, so whatever this is, it used to be normal. Normal has changed. Since I couldn’t get a proper fitting, I had to get creative.
I found that Home Depot sell a Husky branded copper tubing expander, and the local store had two in stock.
I got it, and a handful of hubless 1/2” couplings. I annealed one, and stretched it to fit over the old pipe. It’s no longer truly hubless.
After cleaning up the old 45* joint as best I could with sandpaper, I added flux and resoldered that joint. More flux and solder, and my modified coupling was in place. No leaks. Probably will outlast me.
But I’m now really curious to identify this mystery pipe or tubing. What is it?
dam auto correct
