WHAT is This Copper Tubing?

Patrick_27

What are TP Copper and Flag Flow?

Patrick_27

Odd & Odd Sized Copper



Had to repair a leak in the piping for my hot water baseboards. I knew that the tubing was not ordinary, but didn't expect what I found.

There is a double loop of copper around the basement ceiling. The fittings are marked 1 3/4", and have shallow solder cups - Sort of like refrigeration fittings. Risers to the baseboards upstairs I had assumed were ordinary 1/2" copper. Not.

When I cut the riser I needed to work on, it turned out to be VERY thick walled. Also, it is slightly larger in outside diameter than 1/2". It won't fit ordinary 1/2" fittings. Existing fittings are marked FF-A. I measured the large tubing as best I could without calipers, and the 1 3/4" markings must indicate internal diameter.

This is a rural area, and no one around here knows what the stuff is. The man I bought the house from said that the previous owner, who put the H/W heat in himself, had worked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and got the tubing there.

It seems to me that I should try to locate a few fittings for this stuff against possible future need. Anyone got any notions?

Not so old-old timer

Sounds like TP Copper or Flag Flow

Good luck finding fittings

Kal Row

arent they silver brazed?

think high pressure copper - k or greater thickness tubing and silver brazed fittings - good for 600psi and 400 degrees - used with steam as well

you are throwing me with the “shallow solders cups” as those are used with copper waste piping in regular domestic applications

I love refrigeration pipe measurements, as the sizes are always, outside pipe diameters and inside fitting diameters – real simple – whereas regular plumbing, is nominal inside pipe diameters and varies with pipe thickness within a class of pipe like copper or black threaded – and forget about the fittings…

Caselli

Navy Yard ?

Yikes !

Is there a joint every 8 inches or so... like he brought the pieces home in his lunch box ? :-)

Patrick_27

If he carried it out of the Navy Yard, it wasn't in his lunch box.

Reminds me of the local urban legend of the fellow leaving the Sun Oil refinery with his wheelbarropw every day. A diffrent one every day.

Patrick_27

Thanks for your thoughts.

The cups on the large fittings can't be much more than 1/4" deep.

When I next get into Philadelphia, what sort of supply house would have high pressure copper stuff?

S-PEE

Funny cop fittings



Sounds like Flagg Flow fittings especially coming from a Navy Yard, they're primarily used on ships & subs. Check out http://www.elkhartproducts.com/cf/leebrass/