Anybody have any magic tips for removing a pipe nipple on the cold water feed line that goes into the wall. The valve is leaking because the nipple has corroded so much. I want to avoid screwing up the fitting in the wall.
Anybody have any magic tips for removing a pipe nipple on the cold water feed line that goes into the wall. The valve is leaking because the nipple has corroded so much. I want to avoid screwing up the fitting in the wall.
ez-out
Hope for the best....prepare for much worse.
Get yourself one of these in the proper size. And hope for the best.
KyAllroad wrote: Hope for the best....prepare for much worse.
It's already gone downhill. The nipple hasn't broken off...yet. I can get a pipe wrench on it. Access under the sink is minimal.
If the nipple has corroded that much on the valve end it's probably not shiny and happy on the other end. You just have to hope that someone properly secured the pipe back there. Any way you can run a die over the existing threads and clean them up enough to work?
I got the torch out and heated it good. Got it to move and that was it.
EDIT: I mean it came out. Life is good again. Well sorta.
Good. Most of my plumbing projects end with me wanting to use the torch to set the house on fire and start over.
How long is the nipple? What I've done with a short nipple is to cut the pipe on the inside in line with the pipe. A sawsall works well here. The other alternative is to drill the inside of the pipe out until you almost just get into the threads of the fitting in the wall. The remaining metal should be thin enough that you can peel/twist it out. Just use plenty of thread sealant when you replace it. The beauty of pipe threads is that they are tapered. If you have a pipe tap you can just tap the fitting in the wall a bit deeper.
Having had a father who was a union pipefitter by trade and did a lot of plumbing work on our house and on the side for pay I've learned how to deal with problems like this.
I had one break not long ago. I started with the internal pipe wrench, but too much was busted out to get any grip. I ended up with an easy out that I had to cut down to keep it from bottoming out on the 90 degree elbow in the wall. It took longer to cut the easy out down to size than to actually remove the broken part in the wall. It bit right in and I was off to the races.
Most of the time when we come across that scenario, we abandon the one in the wall and run a new line up thru the floor of the cabinet. Here in New England, water pipes in an outside wall is a no-no anyway. They freeze, but that doesn't stop people from doing it anyway. Had my first frozen pipe of the season two days ago. Expect a few calls today because it got down to single digits with strong winds.
In reply to tr8todd:
I'm dealing with frozen pipes right now. The shower and sink in the add on bathroom. Both are on the northern exterior wall. Running a space heater in there did nothing to help thaw it. Time to call the landlord.
My maternal grandfather told my father (as dad's crammed under a sink) "I can tell you everything you need to know about plumbing boy. Hot's on the left, cold's on the right, and E36 M3 runs downhill."
Cue maniacal old man laughter and Dad cursing under his breath.
Sorry, it's no more helpful now than it was then.
ultraclyde wrote: My maternal grandfather told my father (as dad's crammed under a sink) "I can tell you everything you need to know about plumbing boy. Hot's on the left, cold's on the right, and E36 M3 runs downhill." Cue maniacal old man laughter and Dad cursing under his breath. Sorry, it's no more helpful now than it was then.
...and "Don't bite your fingernails".
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