6mm copper pipe repair ?

[JCplumb]

Evening chaps,
A customer of mine has put a nail through a 6mm heating pipe.
It's in a notched joist that holds about 8 other pipes just before they all bend down into the manifold, the other direction goes under a laminate floor so not a lot of room to work in the spaghetti junction that I have to repair tomorrow.
I'm thinking that cutting out a section and renewing with couplers will be a pain, don't really fancy disturbing the other pipes any more than I have to with it being so close to the compression fittings to the manifold.
I had a craaaaazy idea :6:

Will 8mm pipe, or 10mm pipe have a close enough internal diameter to solder a length sleeved over the damaged 6mm pipe?
I was thinking of cutting the 6mm where it is slightly more accessible and feeding a larger diameter copper pipe over the nail hole and the cut I made if you get what I mean? Then soldering both ends of the new larger diameter pipe as if it was one big slip coupling.
Has anyone done anything similar?
Oh, and this will mean I don't have to buy a 10m roll of 6mm that I will probably never use aswell as some stupidly priced 6mm couplers.
Cheers.

 

[lame plumber]

best have a practice first tonight at home

 

[JCplumb]

I would if I had any 6mm pipe

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

10mm can be joined to 8 so cant see why 8 cant be joined to 6,never come across 6mm though,are you sure its not 8?

 

[lame plumber]

I have a roll of 4mm copper so wouldnt be surprised to find 6mm out there, brake pipes or some such use for smaller stuff

 

[JCplumb]

Yeah, I'm 100%. Took my microbore benders and the pipe is loose in the 8mm slot and snug in the 6mm slot. Also measured diameter and divided by pi to double check.
I often get the jobs that are done in the rarest of materials, like the flush replacement in the 1 piece loo (no coupling between pan and cistern) I had a few months ago. The merchant laughed me out of the shop when I asked him if he had a valve that would fit...

 

[turnpin]

10mm can be joined to 8 so cant see why 8 cant be joined to 6,never come across 6mm though,are you sure its not 8?

I too suspect 8mm only seen 6mm used on pressure control stats and some refridgeration regards Turnpin :smiley2:

 

[townfanjon]

If it is 6mm , I have seen some on gas lines on cars/vans that run off petrol/gas conversions

 

[jonnyswamp]

Can't you ream out a coupler to make it into a slip socket and do what you said, cut it where its more accessible then slide it over the puncture and simply solder

 

[JCplumb]

It's 6mm, the original installers put it in in the 70's apparantly. There are some 6mm pipes there and 8mm pipes for the longer runs. Not something I'd ever install but the copper-poor 70's were crazy times.
My guess is that 8mm pipe will be too tight to get the solder up between the two pipes, and 10mm pipe will be too loose. The pipe walls are likely to be 1mm so 8mm pipe = no gap and 10mm pipe = 1mm gap all round which seems a bit big in my opinion.

 

[JCplumb]

Can't you ream out a coupler to make it into a slip socket and do what you said, cut it where its more accessible then slide it over the puncture and simply solder

I'm liking that idea, cheers pal. so 2 couplers, 1 to cover the hole and the other (unreamed) to fix the cut I needed to do to get the first one on.
Nice one matey

 

[turnpin]

It's 6mm, the original installers put it in in the 70's apparantly. There are some 6mm pipes there and 8mm pipes for the longer runs. Not something I'd ever install but the copper-poor 70's were crazy times.
My guess is that 8mm pipe will be too tight to get the solder up between the two pipes, and 10mm pipe will be too loose. The pipe walls are likely to be 1mm so 8mm pipe = no gap and 10mm pipe = 1mm gap all round which seems a bit big in my opinion.

If it was as you say put in in the 70's it maybe 1/4 " refridge Guy's still use imperial tube..lookout for air on/ref ridge Guy's van sure you could tap a piece of his scrap.....regards Turnpin:smile5::smile5:

 

[JCplumb]

Haha, I've just sourced a 6mm slip coupler, so you can guarantee it will be imperial pipe

 

[village idiot]

Or you could try this idea?
When I attended PHEX at Alexander Palace, Locktite had a pipr repair tape which they say you can get from Halfords? I checked there but it wasn't in stock. All the same, I told a customer of mine who had a leaking pipe and he managed to source it from Wicks and repaired his pipe. In as much as it isn't something I will be happy to use, but in an emergency it could do for a temporal repair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpkklLqoKI

 

[lame plumber]

BES has all you'll ever need next day delivery

 

[plumben]

Just sell him a new install and be done with all the 6mm

As said i'd use two slip couplings if possible

 

[JCplumb]

I've just asked him to ring round some other plumbers and see if they have any 6mm stock on hand and give them the job if they have.
Tried the merchants and they told me 6mm is rarer than rocking horse excretia, I could order some 6mm only to find the pipe is actually 1/4'' so his heating/hot water could be off until I could source some imperial.
I think the pipe would need to be cut to see if it's metric/imperial and I don't want to cut it and have to leave it overnight (or longer) while I source parts.
Modo vincis, modo vinceris.

 

[Roger Welton]

6mm copper showing as a tenner a roll (10m) on BES and in stock, and 6mm couplers 15p each, again in stock.

 

[quality]

6mm is standard pneumatic stuff from any outlet such as thorite, & 1/4" is standard fridge stuff from an outlet such as HRP

 

[JCplumb]

Well thanks for the advice guys, as I said I've passed the job on now, but will remember incase I ever come across this again. (Unlikely)
He said the rad that this pipe feeds gets well hot, I was mighty surprised to be honest, 4mm internal bore can't carry many BTUs surely? And off a manifold type system, I bet it took a week to balance that bugger

 

[gassafe]

Must be a very very clean system that one lol

 

[goz666]

8mm would've worked fine mate, I have a customer with some pipes in 6mm and first time I changed a rad of his I had the same problem. Cut with a hacksaw and filed for full bore the 6mm fit snugly inside the 8mm and soldered up great. Cut with a wheeled cutter it was a no go.

 

[PriestyUK]

My heating system is 6mm microbore with manifolds. When updating my rads, and renewing 15mm out of the floors up stairs as most of the 6mm coming out of the floor to the rads had been kinked by hoovering etc. I was more worried about applying too much solder and blocking the pipe, but it all went ok. They thought back then, the smaller the pipe less water to heat up I think. My HTG system does run on 100% inhibitor and magnaclean