I was in the process of installing a new shutoff valve on the chromed brass water line feeding my pedestal sink when the inevitable happened. The chromed brass pipe broke off in the wall. My house is 100 years old but the copper supply pipes where replaced about 25-30 years ago. The bathroom wall is porcelin tile so I opened up a peep hole from the opposite side and discovered that I only have about 4″ of workspace due to a hvac duct in this wall. The copper pipe is between a stud and the hvac duct. There is no room for a pipe cutter so the only option is to use a saw to cut the pipe. This bathroom is on the 2nd floor and I have decorative crown moldings on the floor below that I do not want to disturb. Do any of you know of any reliable solderless copper fittings (other than a compression fitting-I do not have room to operate a wrench for tightening)? Is there anyway to remove the remains of the broken brass pipe (screwed in) from the copper fitting?
Thanks,
Stan
Replies
It may be worth your while to get a Fein Multimaster to cut it. This sounds like the very kind of job this tool was created for. There are a few other brands and like Bosch, Dremmel, & Craftsman, but the best is still the original. It would give a more controlled cut in that confined space.
As far as using solderless, perhaps somebody else will come along and advise. I've never used it.
You can't solder, even in that small an opening?
The way I understand your situation is as follows:
There is the end of a broken chromed brass pipe stuck in a threaded fitting inside of the wall (the fitting would be an elbow with mounting ears most likely). Not a soldered joint involving rigid copper tubing.
If this is your case, then "inside pipe wrenches" are readily available for the various pipe sizes - you most likely neeed a 1/2" size. They will insert inside of the broken pipe and allow you to remove the broken-off stub of brass pipe from the fitting. The wrench would insert from the bathroom side of the wall without enlarging the hole.
They work sort of like an EZ out for broken bolts, but without any drilling since the broken pipe already has a hole down the center.
Plumbing supply house or even a big box will have the wrenches.
I would chase the threads of the fitting with an appropriate pipe tap before installing a new chrome brass pipe nipple.
Jim
Sharkbite fittings
Yeah, sharkbite makes lug el's. You really need to attach them to solid blocking before putting in your new chrome nipple though. You'll have to slip a something behind the fitting to attach the elbow to and make sure it's attached to the stud. I don't know if you have enough room. I suppose you could put the nipple in to the elbow first and then push it onto the pipe.
Don't cut anything yet. I think your best bet would be an internal pipe wrench, or a nipple extractor, which looks like a tap with reversed cutting threads. You will probably be able to extract the broken nipple and and just screw in a new one.
If you really do have to cut the copper there are mini tubing cutters that only need about 1" of clearance to swing. If you're right up against an obstacle, I would just use a sawzall and deburr the edge with a small file. A sharkbite fitting might work if you don't want to solder.
If your problem is a broken threaded nipple fragment remaining in the female threads of the ell or tee, one of the internal pipe wrench devices should solve your problem. I have and have used all three of the types shown in the product post. They all will usually require some "fumbling with" to get them to bite on the nipple fragment. The straight type with the sharp corners usually needs to be tapped in to get it to bite. That might not be good for your aging pipes. The left hand spiral version will sometimes bite just by turning it into the fragment. Sometimes a little tapping is needed. The type with the eccentric cam element usually requires the least heavy handedness to make it work. A new cam type wrench may work better than an older one because the cam element will move freely to grab the fragment.
When they work, they are like magic and save a lot of extra work. Good luck.
look here for various removal tools.
http://www.plumbersurplus.com/Cat/Pipe-Nipple-Extractors/655/List