From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: OT - Deep well water level
Message-ID: <vtscmuk242dkoohac8fkqhvo28a1hga91t@4ax.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 13:47:45 -0400

On Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:54:24 -0400, Chris Bryant <BryantRV-05@cfl.rr.com>
wrote:


>	I'm not quite sure what I will do with the main well- it is a
>3" pipe with a T on the top, with a hose spigot installed in the T.
>It is old enough that the spigot is plugged (I thought it was going
>dry), but when I tried to remove it, the top of the pipe started to
>break- giving me a 20' stream of water. I'm trying to figure out how
>to cut the pipe off, and put a new top on, all while it is under
>pressure.

Wrap the pipe heavily with towels and then soak the towel with R134a (or
liquid nitrogen if you want to get fancy).  After the water freezes a plug,
cut the pipe off and either thread the end or use one of those compression
patch things to splice a new line in.

The freeze plug is a standard industrial technique.  I've seen 48" pipes
frozen to avoid draining a large system.  I don't have a central cutoff valve
in my restaurant so turning the water off involves going to the meter and
hoping I can turn the main valve one more time with the T-wrench and a 6ft
cheater.  I've used the freeze technique several times to avoid having to muck
with the meter valve.  Works equally well on iron, copper or plastic, though
you have to be careful about plastic, as it gets very brittle.  Easy to twist
in two.

BTW, you can take an ordinary vacuum thermos to the welding gas store and get
enough liquid nitrogen to do the job for pennies - maybe free if they don't
want to fool with the paperwork.  It'll keep for a day or two in a good
thermos.  Just don't tighten the lid :-)

John