On Friday, October 7, 2016 at 9:13:38 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I cannot get my water heater out without removing a couple of feet of natural gas black piping, 1-inch OD. The pipe goes horizontally into the wall, joins with an el, and then proceeds vertically down. There is a bracket on the el, fastening the el to a 2x4. How risky is it to put my large pipe wrench on the pipe and try to unscrew the pipe, and then screw it back into place? Is this just damned foolish?

Plan B is to take out wallboard so I can get a second wrench on the el.

Everyone should have one of these tools. (€¢€¿€¢)ノ

https://www.amazon.com/SurvivalKitsO.../dp/B000NYDEPQ

Most gas lines are not tightened to the point where you need a breaker bar or length of pipe over your pipe wrench handle to break it loose. The gas company around here and most plumbers use a brush on Teflon paste on gas pipe joints and even the older pipe dope joints have never required a lot of muscle power from me to get loose. I've used both the Teflon paste and Leak Lock on gas pipe joints. I have a small tube of the blue Leak Lock in my general purpose tool bag that I carried with me back when I was working. I also have a bottle of bubble making leak detector in my tools somewhere but you can make your own with dish washing liquid to put on the gas pipe joints to detect any leaks by the bubbles produced. (€¢€¿€¢)

https://www.amazon.com/Rectorseal-23.../dp/B0002YPAFY

http://www.highsidechem.com/leaklock.html

http://www.rectorseal.com/better-bubble/

[8~{} Uncle Dope Monster