copper/ brass pipe

Roundy · copper/ brass pipe

hello, for my gcse res mat project i am makeing a hereoes engine, and i need some large copper pipe to make the boiler from - in an ideal world i am looking for something 70/80mm in diameter and about 4/5 " long- anyone know wear i could get some???
cheers roundy

MTA

Hi Roundy,
Long time no speak! We had a topic recently with links to various metal suppliers, here's a link:

http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about7164.html

HTH

Roundy

Cranko

I'd be straight down to the recycler for a piece of 3" copper myself

MamodFan

go and beg the local plumbers shop, they will have large dia copper, they night have some fittings you can use.

mc_mc

I just put in an order in for some pipe work. I had the choice between copper and brass pipe. I went with copper as it was cheaper (and most of my engines seem to have copper already) but I was wondering what the advantages / disadvantages of each were?

Here's a few that I thought of:

- Price (copper cheaper)
- Appearance (brass pipes would polish up nicely)
- Copper easier to bend then brass?

Is copper easier to work with than brass?

tmuir

Another reason to choose copper over brass is brass goes brittle over time whilst copper won't so copper engines will last longer.
But to put this in perspective a brass engine is still fine after 100 years (I know I have coming up on this age) but if you plan on building a family heirloom engine one built from copper will stay usuable for a lot longer.

Copper doesn't have Zinc in it either so won't corrode like brass can.

But saying all that I still prefer the look of brass.

Cranko