Jump to content

Copper pipes


Adrianb

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

Im replacing all the brake pipes and wondered which is the most cost effective way of achieving this! When replying please bear in mind that I’m doing this with limited eye sight and the usual loss of strength on the left side due to a stroke !Ive seen you can buy ready made lengths bent in apparently the right directions or should I buy a roll of pipe and make each section in turn,thanks for your input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Adrian, doing the job yourself using a roll of copper piping, a flaring tool, and a box of male/female fittings is the best way in terms of getting a perfect length and bend for each pipe.  I've done all of mine like this and it is not difficult once you have practised a few times with the flaring tool and its associated male/female dies to get the hang of it.

It does not require much strength to make up ends and fittings, so if, for example, you are able to tighten 7/16" and 1/2" nuts and bolts okay then you should be okay with making up pipes. The only other things you'll need is a bench mounted vice to hold the flaring tool, a fine bladed hacksaw (Junior hacksaw is perfect) and a selection of files. The fact that most of the work is done performed on an item that is clamped in a vice should hopefully help any loss of strength in one hand maybe?

If you find that bending the copper piping becomes difficult you could always anneal the area of pipe with a small blowtorch before bending.

As far as limited vision is concerned, I'd guess that if you can see well enough to generally tighten and undo nuts and bolts etc., you should be okay with doing this? Only you can really decide this of course, but I hope I have given you some idea of what is physically involved.

Best wishes - Mike

PS - I'm not actually sure of the cost savings over buying all the kit and making your own or buying ready made; I bought my kit so that I'd always have it to hand if I needed a pipe in a hurry. Probably best to weigh up the difference in costs....

Edited by sparky_spit
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...