Piping around corner less than 45 degrees.


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Old 01-24-20, 04:12 PM
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Piping around corner less than 45 degrees.

Suffered a broken heating pipe at corner that is less than 45 degrees. The installer didn't use a fitting to make the turn. It looks like a piece of regular type m pipe that was molded and bent slightly to fit into expanded opening on regular 3/4" pipe. I've seen that done on car exhaust pipes but not copper pipes.
 
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Old 01-24-20, 04:59 PM
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I've done it more than once, usually by using 3/4" ID soft copper (tubing).
 
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Old 01-24-20, 06:23 PM
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A little trick is that you are able to turn hard drawn tubing into soft drawn for a bend.
You heat the section of tubing you want to soften to a dull cherry red and then cool, slow or fast doesn't matter.
You have to make sure you flush the oxidation from inside the tubing.
 
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Old 01-24-20, 07:52 PM
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Bend slow & easy lest you kink the tubing. Right, GregH?
 
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Old 01-24-20, 08:38 PM
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Ahhh the old BT ( bending temper) tubing of the day. we stopped using that in the late 80's. Back in the day we did it to save on elbows. Box of ells were expensive. The pipe was cheap...20 ft lengths. I belive it was L copper. Heck I think I still have my swedging tool...lol.. No couplings....


 
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Old 01-25-20, 07:25 PM
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You could put a slight kink in softened hard drawn tubing but you really should use a tube bender..
I do this for refrigeration and A/C installations when you want to impress someone with your arrow straight runs but need to minimize joints and want better flow around corners than you would get with elbows.
Even if you can cover the suction line with foam insulation it is difficult to make soft drawn tubing look good.
 
 

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