Hey guys, Having differculty finding this in the uk as nowhere local seems to do it and I can't find an online source that will supply to the uk, I'm after a coil of copper pipe/tube with 1/2" ID. I want to use it to make a custom radiator, read that a chap had done this with about two meters and it effectly cooled his XP2200+ so I'm banking on 3meters or so cooling my rig. I don't have the tools to work the copper so figured if I could get a coil it would save me having to bend and shape it Any ideas?? Cheers
You'll probably find that coiled pipe only comes in 8mm and 10mm microbore sizes and 10m and 25m lengths. 15mm (the equivalent to the old half inch size) normally comes in 3m lengths. Although you say you dont have the tools, you could try using a pipe bending spring (should be about £2 or so) and bending it gently, it'll take a while but you should be able to do it. You can buy proper pipe benders for about £30 or hire 'em from HSS for around £12 , but if you know any plumbers (or people that have built their own still) you could always ask them to do it for you - though that may be more costly than buying the benders.
In the US we can find the coiled pipe where they sell GAS applicances, or any dealer that sales fuel oil. Have you looked at those types of places?
cheers ok did some searching on plumbing suppliers and came up with a site called 'screwfix' which supplies plumbing materials and a heap of other cool stuff. Does 15mm diameter copper pipe in 20m (10 x 2m) and 30m (10 x 3m). which I should be able to link using pushfits (also sold). Also they do Mirobore Copper Tube 10mm × 25m which is in a coil (full 25m) which sounds hopeful although I guess it maybe resrictive, but how resrictive (using a full 1/2" ID system)? Will look into the bending spring also sounds spot on. Cheers guys
In the UK its only the microbore that comes coiled, gas fitters just use the same pipe as plumbers if they have to go to 15mm or above. If you want large bore pipe in coils you have to use plastic - not much use as a rad Screwfix do the bending spring As for the pipe, you could also get the chrome plated version - it's slightly more expensive
i think youll find at a local plummer or ironmonger and if not try a car repair shop i hear the use them in cars
Forget the idea of buying 15mm cioled pipe. Note: Most blocks and normal w/c stuff spec'ed at 1/2" only has an ID of 9mm or less anyway, 10mm coiled pipe is about the same, so get that. Good tubing (tygon/clearflex etc..) will fit over 15mm OD with ease,and higher if you warm it up first. You dont need push fits! If you get 15mm pipe, you can do two things: 1) use normal solder fittings. Easy to do and gives you an excuse to play with a very hot flames 2) Aneal it. The process of heating it up in order to re-align the crystaline structure of the metal. Once aligned perfectly metals become soft and easy to bend - which deforms the structure and makes it hard again. Anealing simple metals is easy - alloys like steel are not as much. With copper you can heat it red and it will happen instantly, or you can heat it lower and let it cook for longer, same result. 85°c over night has same effect as red for 1/2 a minute. Annoyingly heating metals in air results in them reactiing with oxygen and can take a while to clean off after... Instead you could use two peices (cut it in half first ) of 10mm in parrelell. I would use parrelel anyway as it gives less restriction for the pump. Then measure the circumfrence of your pipe, and find out how much surface area it gives you (circumfrence * length). You can then make it the right size for what you need.
Sweet ... Cool cheers found them I like this idea, I can run two coils of 10mm (12.5m length) in parrell with Y-Splitters connecting them to the 1/2"Clearflex at each end. Thats 78.5meters squared of surface area (correct me if I'm wrong) which is a lot! This is what your saying, yes? This would mean no bending, soldering, etc. which works with me u btw! Will my CSP-X2 MKII pumps (currently awaiting delivery) be upto this much distance? I'm guessing vertical height will be about a foot (prymid style). Cheers all
