Copper tube

I’m looking for some five inch copper tube to make a boiler. The best I’ve found is £248 for twelve inches. Anyone know a supplier who charges sensible prices?

Try M-Metals they list 5"od x 10gauge C106 £8.75 an inch +VAT + Carriage

David

Try Noggin End, they sell entire kits of materials for model boilers.

That's M-Machine in David's post who I use a lot

Thank you Jason for the correction.

David

My bit will be a bit big for you at 6.25 dia x 22" long but at least your post gives me a rough idea of what to expect pricewise when I move it on. Be interested in knowing where you get your pipe.

Rik

M-Metals seem to be the cheapest so far but at £123 plus postage for twelve inches I think I might wait a while and see what comes my way. Thanks for replies.

Hi Stephen, did you have any luck? I'm in a similar boat trying to buy copper pipe. I was warned to "bring my chequebook" as copper isn't cheap but the bewildering lengths people sell it in makes it hard to compare. I'm looking at some 108mm (~4.25" ) copper pipe on ebay, it's £120 for 900mm (~35" ) making it around 3.50 an inch. This is about the cheapest I can find for a reasonably wide pipe but I'm hesistant to buy 35 inches when I only really need 9. Maybe I will have to just stomach it and try and find a use for the rest. Perhaps attempts 2 and 3...!

Edited By Matt T on 26/09/2023 10:22:51

Watch what you are buying on e-bay a lot of the 108mm tube will be "plumbing black lable" which at 1.5mm wall is getting quite thin for a boiler assuming that is what you intend to u yellow gaugese it for. And the thinner wall will obviously affect the price as you will be getting less copper than say 10swg wall tube.

Edited By JasonB on 26/09/2023 10:42:09

Good catch, I did check and it's 1.5mm wall thickness. Would it okay to simply reduce the working pressure of the boiler? As it's my first boiler build the object is primarily to get some experience with silver soldering, hammer forming etc. I note that mamod boilders have a safety valve that goes off at around 20psi so perhaps building and testing to this (20/40) would allow me to use a thinner and hence cheaper pipe?

Ive just checked my stock of tube

i have a tube 12.5 " x 4.5" id x 13swg ( 2.65mm)

happy to let it go for £100 ish posted?

High Matt T, you would be better off visiting a scrap metal merchant and buying some big bore copper tube say 1& 1/2 to 1 &3/4 " pipe to make Tubal Cain's Polly for practice. You can buy that for £10 a kilo.

If you want to make something as big as 4 &1/2" that will be a lot of money in silver solder and it would be a shame to waste that on something that can only run at 20 PSI.

There are many questions to be answered ! What type of boiler ? If you belong a club talk to the boiler inspector. What do you want to use the boiler for ? Are you following a tried and tested design ? To deviate from the design or materials may make getting a certificate difficult or the pressure so low as to not drive what you want.! Any copper boiler WILL be expensive to make. 1.5 mm Wall is half of 10 SWG at 3..25mm - You pays your money ! Good luck. Noel.

Although the mamods run at a low pressure they struggle with the skin off a rice pudding so as Noel says what do you want to use the boiler for, little point in making a low pressure one if it won't run a wobbler than has been built a bit on the tight side. Or you overheat and melt the tube while trying to learn how to solder.

The thicker walled tube of known parentage will not be a big percentage of the overall cost by the time you have added in silver solder, the other tubes and platework and your time. Even less if you only have to make the one boiler not two.