My reloading bench is in our basement/dungeon right under the main water lines to the kitchen sink. There's a spot right above my LNL press where there's a junction and for some reason whoever installed it decided to put caps on the pipe instead of just elbowing it...maybe to serve as a drain. That didn't work, though, because the damn things won't come off.

The caps are made of some kind of soft steel or iron or something, not copper, and over the last several years there has been a lot of corrosion building up on the one on the hot water side. I started to get concerned that it'll eat through and leak all over my bench, destroying thousands of dollars worth of powder and primers.

I tried removing it at one point a year or so ago, but it was siezed on there. It kept getting worse, so today I finally decided that something needed done. It's a pain because I had to move all of my powder and primers out of there, cover my press, and have my wife handy with a bucket, but it beat dealing with it after a leak.

I tried wrenches and heat (always fun playing with a propane torch in an area where you know there's got to be a buch of spilled powder!) with no success, so I took a dremel and a screwdriver to it and finally got it off. I'm glad I did...it looks like it was pretty close to eroding through. I managed to get it off without trashing the threads on the fiting, and I've got a nice heavy-duty brass cap on there now, with a temporary drip tray underneath just in case (and my primers are still staying upstairs for a few days), but so far so good.

Ummmmm...don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but looking at the solder joints behind the cap and around the Tee...well, let's just say I'm not impressed by the workmanship.

You need one of these in your toolbox, hacksaws and Dremels need not apply.

Consider de-soldering or cutting that end fitting off of there, (optionally) adding an in-line cutoff valve, and a short piece of copper pipe with a copper cap sweated on (so you can pop off the cap and have a water source for your bench if you ever find a need to do so. Or just cut it back and soldering on a cap.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Ummmmm...don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but looking at the solder joints behind the cap and around the Tee...well, let's just say I'm not impressed by the workmanship.

I'm not impressed, either, but it wasn't me, and it hasn't leaked in over 20 years, so I'm not messing with it!

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
You need one of these in your toolbox, hacksaws and Dremels need not apply.

Consider de-soldering or cutting that end fitting off of there, (optionally) adding an in-line cutoff valve, and a short piece of copper pipe with a copper cap sweated on (so you can pop off the cap and have a water source for your bench if you ever find a need to do so. Or just cut it back and soldering on a cap.

I do have a tube cutter. Cutting it off and sweating on a cap was my backup plan, but I managed to get it off without trashing the threads so I just screwed the new one on there. I'm no plumber, and while I've successfully sweated pipe a few times, I'm always a little too excited when it doesn't leak, so I only do it when I absolutely have to. I've been through enough plumbing debacles to have a healthy appreciation for my own limitations, lol.

Adding water supply to the basement is a no-go. There's no drainage and no good way to add any. It's what they call a "Michigan Basement" around here...dirt floor and fieldstone masonry walls. There's not much room to do anything down there, and the only reason my reloading stuff is down there at all us that there's no room in the rest of the house, and it was rusting in the garage. When the kids move out I'm taking one of their rooms!

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I'm no plumber, and while I've successfully sweated pipe a few times, I'm always a little too excited when it doesn't leak, so I only do it when I absolutely have to. I've been through enough plumbing debacles to have a healthy appreciation for my own limitations, lol.

Yep, hydraulic pressure is a bitch.

Steel or iron to copper not a good idea as you hinted. Galvanic corrosion due to dissimilar metals. I can't tell if that's a di-electric fitting or not ahead of the cap. Brass caps are much better for copper.

And PHPaul's comment on the other joints....yeah. It almost looks like someone tried to putty over the solder.