John Stumbles wrote:
On Sun, 07 Jan 2007 10:13:14 -0800, df wrote:

Have to do some pipework shortly, Whats the best way to clean up the
old pipe which has paint on it, Prior to jointing.

Depending on how accessible it is (usually not very :-() various
combinations of getting off the worst of the paint (if it's thick) with
the serrated jaws of a pair of water-pump pliers and/or combination
pliers, scraping with a not-too-sharp knife or chisel (copper is soft!)
and rubbing down with those sort of kitchen scourers that look like curled
up fine steel ribbon get most of the paint off. Then a strip of sandpaper
(you can get plumbers' rolls about an inch wide) wrapped around the pipe
and pulled back and forth can get it quite clean.


anything hard metal like a chisel or wrench jaws will make a pipe that
can't use a compression fitting and may have soldering issues as well