How to cut this copper coil

I got a bit lucky and bought a broken air dryer that had a big copper coil inside. This is a heat exchanging coil with a copper tube inside a tube.

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The problem is that it is extremely heavily made and would not easily cut with a cable cutter. I want to cut it up into pieces and clean to make #1 copper.

Any idea what can cut it, maybe a circular saw with a small tooth blade?

Thanks

Reply to
Ignoramus9502
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That's probably worth a fortune as #1 copper. Oh, it's down from $3 (when I last looked) to $2.28/lb, but still valuable.

How about a recip saw for a deeper cut? If it's soft, a 12" woodcutting blade might work, though it might leave rough edges. Cut it in half and clean from there.

What takes that white gunk off? What is that?

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Ugly!

How long is the coil?

And what about the radial thickness?

Do you have a portable bandsaw? That might bridge the radial thickness. Are you cutting it in place, or can you bring it to your place first?

Maybe a low speed circular saw with a zero rake blade. Anything with a rake will probably dig in. A pity the coil is not open enough to use tubing cutters on it.

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

That's probably worth a fortune as #1 copper. Oh, it's down from $3 (when I last looked) to $2.28/lb, but still valuable.

How about a recip saw for a deeper cut? If it's soft, a 12" woodcutting blade might work, though it might leave rough edges. Cut it in half and clean from there.

What takes that white gunk off? What is that? =============================================================

I'm guessing the white stuff is your basic hard water deposits, calcium and magnesium carbonates and/or sulfates and/or other salts. It always tempting to start throwing acids at the problem to dissolve them, but then you are going to have a big volume of hazardous waste to get rid of. How about cutting the tubing with bolt cutters, and trying something like a small air hammer with a wide flat tip to vibrate off as much of the white stuff as you can. Maybe hit the coil before you cut it up to knock off big chunks, then each length after you cut it up. Finish with a wire brush. As much as I love chemistry, mechanical methods are almost always faster :-). Save any acid for a final polishing step only if really needed.

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

Reply to
Carl Ijames

Sawz-All

Reply to
clare

Still pretty good. Copper has been pretty flat for the last 1.5 years or so.

I want to cut it to remove steel ends, and secondly to clean off the urethane foam.

White gunk is expanding urethane foam, it does not seem to stick to copper very well and should easily come off once the coil is cut.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14657

No, it is expanding urethane foam.

Way too thick for bolt cutters, over an inch thick, and inside the tubing there is one more tubing (it is a heat exchanger). So it is like a double tube.

I was really hoping that there is a blade for a circular saw that would work.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14657

Not sure how long, it is very hard to unroll. I tried, as you see, with big forklifts, but it was very difficult.

Each tubing is over an inch thick, heavy, and inside this tube there is a smaller tube, as this is a heat exchanger.

It is at my place.

I bought a 60 tooth circular saw blade for "non-ferrous". I will give it a try.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14657

A Sawzall would work, but a chainsaw might be good for an initial cut across the side of the whole coil.

Reply to
James Waldby

As you already know copper is sticky, doesn't saw well. For the stuff you have unrolled try an axe, maybe splitting maul with a block of wood underneath. Wire rope, cable cutters might work on it too but they are kind of pricey. The miners would use air chisels to cut large chunks into smaller ones...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

I will try, I thought I had a screw drive circular saw

urethane foam

Reply to
Ignoramus14657

This might work:

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Maybe you can rent one from ahern.

Best Regards Tom.

Reply to
Howard Beel

Powered saws with diamond-edged blades do the best on almost anything.

Reply to
mogulah

Copper is "sticky" so a circular saw isn't ideal. A portable band saw would be ideal, but a recip would do the job. Either way, there WILL be some "fun" involved. I also have a "shear" that would "likely" do the job, but you would need to uncoil everything first.

Reply to
clare

It has been awhile since I looked.

Recip saws are nice for demo work. I bought a nice, heavy duty Porter Cable Tiger Saw years ago. It's a heavy beast, too. You can also set one up in a vise and use it to hack off the thicker urethane, not having to worry about scraping the surface. They're a bit safer than circular and band saws. I bought a

The little 18v Ryobi is much lighter.

Oh, God. That shit is nearly invulnerable to solvents. Acetone works when it's fresh, but nothing cuts it when it's dry/cured. And it doesn't burn off cleanly, producing toxic gases if you try.

I suggest you build a multiple brush unit to run it through to clean off that foam. And ask your scrap guys what they consider "clean", so you're not surprised when you take it in to redeem it.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Just remember to replace the chain and bar afterward.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

OK, I had some free time today and I had some success. I have jaws for cutting heavy cables and a hydraulic power supply for it. The jaws are new/Chinese by SDT and the power supply is Burndy from a heavy old crimper.

As you can see from the pictures below, it does cut the tubes. You can see how one tube is inside of another.

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I will have my guy cut up the rest tomorrow.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14657

OK, I have a hydraulic cable cutter that worked today. The cutter head and power supply were initially unrelated.

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I realized that if I cut some tubes first, I can unroll the coil tube by tube.

Reply to
Ignoramus14657

Looks like you've got it.

Reply to
clare

Thanks. It is not a continuous duty pump and it does overheat after a while., But since he will also have to clean off the foam, it may get enough time to cool down.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14657

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