Silk Purse

[rwm]

You didn't have to machine the old pipe away. Put a hose clamp on the outside of the joint (the female part), then use a heat gun to soften the PVC. Once soft, grab the PVC to be removed and twist it. The softened PVC will simply peel away from the part you want to save. The hose clamp just supports the part that you DO want to save.

Doesn't that prevent you from using your lathe?

 

[SLK001]

Doesn't that prevent you from using your lathe?

It does. However, if you're trying to remove a female part of a fitting, then use your lathe to turn a round support that fits inside the male "stub" that remains (God, this sounds nasty!). Then, use the heat gun to soften and remove the female overburden.

I once had a kitchen sink that only had about 2 inches of pipe sticking out of the wall and it had a busted coupler still attached. I desperately needed to preserve the 2 inches of pipe, while removing the broken female coupler. If the pipe broke, then I was going to have to open the wall behind (and under) the sink to fix the pipe. What I did was turn a piece of wood with a very slight taper so that I could support the pipe while wrenching the busted coupler off. Heat and a chisel removed the broken part with no damage to the pipe coming out of the wall.