15mm street 'straight'?

[Agile]

I will be interested to see how you get on with one of those.

I have a 22mm version and find that it hardly works at all on most pipe unless its detempered first. ( Chris will explain why thats the wrong word for me to use but its easier to understand )

Some paint pipes under boilers silver which makes them look interesting.

Tony

 

[1john]

I have the 15mm drift and the only way to get it to work well is to anneal(?) the pipe first, get it red hot and cool it immediatly. I use it alot for chrome plated pipe so i can solder a street elbow or a length of normal copper into the chrome as the chrome pipe always has clean copper inside and removing the chrome plating to solder to the outside is a right royal pain in the rump!

 

[namsag]

Been using socket formers for over 30 years and never had a problem on 15 or 22. Perhaps some people are using too light a hammer to hit it with

 

[Servotech]

Bleedin' heck I didn't realise this relic from the 70s was back!

Always was a problem getting the inside of the tube clean enough to solder it. Copper tube is simply not made to be expanded in this way.
The last time I ever used a drift was way back in the day on a modernisation job. My gaffer (back then) simply told us that we'd better not use them anymore after a clerk of works refused to pass a job because they had been used on it.
Just goes to show what goes around eventually comes around.

 

[Agile]

Copper tube in the past was far easier to bend and form with that tube.

Current tube is very difficult to bend without ripples on the 22mm.

After heating the tube I dont find it makes any diference cooling it quickly after heating and if bending then I bend it when still warm.

Tony

 

[sooey]

After heating the tube I dont find it makes any diference cooling it quickly after heating and if bending then I bend it when still warm.

Not quite sure what you're saying there tony, but if copper is heated dull red then plunged into water it will still be annealed. i.e. It won't "temper" like steel, so no need to bend it "hot".

 

[Nige F]

and you don`t need to quench it either - if you have time to spare you can let it cool naturally . If you have an old Triumph 650 you do that to the head gasket : If you have mine - I`d love to see it again - 1965 exPolice Triumph Saint I know it`s still on the road somewhere - VDLA told me .

 

[sooey]

I bet it's dropped more oil by now than BP did in the gulf.

 

[TicklyT]

To anneal copper you just heat it to dull red, hold it at that temperature for a short while, then either let it cool naturally, or, to save a bit of work later, quench it in water. The quenching doesn't re-harden the metal like it would a steel*, but it can loosen the oxide layer on the surface, making it easier to clean the job up ready for soldering afterwards.

Copper does work harden quite quickly, so it may need to be re-annealed between each forming operation.

* not strictly true, but you need to achieve a temperature reduction rate of the order of ten million degrees per second to harden copper, so impossible to achieve without specialist techniques.

 

[rojaca]

you could get a rad valve extension piece. I don't like to use the longer ones, but i believe they come in a 15 or 16mm length. Available from plumbcenter- Stelrad make them I think. 1/2 male thread on one end-length of stainless (15,25 and 35mm approx) then female 1/2''bsp on other end. Screw rad valve in...
Ah I've just realised your centres are short, not long doh!