How to Use Copper Tubing

Flexible copper tubing differs from rigid copper pipe in that it can be easily bent and curved tighter. This flexibility allows copper tubing to be used when water flow must travel around corners or snake behind walls. Copper tubing should not be used for a gas line because the gas can cause flaking inside the tube, which could potentially damage the gas appliance.

Things You'll Need

• Tubing cutter
• Sand
• Coil-spring tubing bender
• Flaring tool
• Flux
• Sandpaper
• Metal file
• Wire brush
• Propane torch
• Groove-joint pliers

Instructions

1. Uncoil copper tubing carefully as you straighten it out. Take the time to straighten the tubing out a few inches at a time so that you don’t accidentally damage it. The best way to get copper tubing out of a box is to firmly grasp the box and smoothly pull the tubing upward and away from you.

2. Use a special tubing cutter to cut flexible copper tubing. Line the cutter up with the mark on the tubing and turn the handles to tighten the rollers. Rotate the cutter as you tighten the tube cutter between each revolution. Continue doing this until the tube is cut. Remove burrs left on the cut edge on the pipe with a metal file.

3. Fill the tubing with sand before bending in order to avoid kinks, is a recommendation from the “Reader’s Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual”. Bend the tube by hand over your knee if you just need a simple arc. Slide a tool called a coil-spring tubing bender to make a sharp turn in the tubing. Slide this bender into the tube just to the point where the bent needs to be made. Bend the tubing to the angle you need and remove it.

4. Decide whether to fit the copper tubing to a joint using solder, flaring or a compression joint. Keep in mind that a flare joint for soft copper tubing can result in the end of the pipe being weakened. A flared joint is the best way to use copper tubing only if you cannot solder or locate the correct compression fitting. A flaring tool is needed to join copper tubing in this way.

5. Use compression fittings for copper tubing installation on items where the fitting is not hidden behind a wall. Compression fittings can result in leaks if you do not use the right fitting. A compression fitting for copper tubing will have a metal compression ring. Using copper tubing with a compression joint gives you the advantage of not needing a special tool like you do for flaring and soldering.

6. Choose to solder your copper tubing if you want to ensure the strongest joint. Understand that you need special equipment like a soldering paste called flux, a propane torch, wire brush and groove-joint pliers. While soldering is the best way to join your copper tubing, it is a skill that takes time and practice to master.

Tips & Warnings

• Type L copper tubing, the medium weight style is the most often used for home plumbing, can be cut with the hacksaw, but cutting is made easier with the tube cutter.

• Use wide arcs when bending the tube in order to avoid sudden kinking that will make the tubing useless.

References

• Copper Development Association: The Copper Tube Handbook
• "Reader's New Fix-It-Yourself Manual;" Joseph Gonzalez, Ed.; 1996