cast iron.......

[bigbadchev84]

well im doing some remodeling for the mother in law and her house is about 100 years old, well i am needing to splice into the cast-iron sewer pipe 4" in diameter, well i was trying the sawsall and all i had was 14tpi and 18tpi blades, which it just ripped the teeth off of them, it is in a full unfinished basement about head hieght off the ground, with about 4" of room above it to the floor joists, what can i do to cut this????


sorry if this is the wrong forum, please move it if it is

 

[79k20350]

angle grinder would work...sawzall should work fine though. Get good qualtiy blades. lenox 18tpi should work awsome...

 

[perp]

plumbers use a tool that looks like a chain with wheels to do a cotrolled fracture at multiple points ( from what i have heard, i have never done this). your local Home Depot may have something like this in there tool rental area?

 

[3 on the tree]

Make sure you have the pipe supported on both sides of the cut!!! That cast iron is heavier than people think. (Don't ask ).

 

[bigbadchev84]

our home depot is the only one in the state that does not do tool rental none of the rental stores have the tool either, i believe they call it a soil pipe cutter, i have tried all sorts of blades, lennox is what we use at work, i have tried 14/18tpi dewalt, lenox,and milwalkee and the demo/rescure blades with no luck, i was hoping there wasnt gonna be "a grinder is the best way" read- crap is gonna fly all over. would a hacksaw be good? anyone know the tpi on them?

 

[RootBreaker]

plumbers use a tool that looks like a chain with wheels to do a cotrolled fracture at multiple points ( from what i have heard, i have never done this). your local Home Depot may have something like this in there tool rental area?

my bud has one of them.... boy was it handy.... yeah lil wheels on a chain... and it cracked it like cuttin cheese !!!!! cheese and crackers not the other cheese... yall crackers !!!

 

[shockline]

I also have one, it works great, if you were closer I could hook you up, but ever decent plumber has one and most places will rent them. I have tried to do it with out one before and I almost set the house on fire.

 

[bigbadchev84]

anyone else have any experience cutting through cast iron without the special cutter?

 

[diesel4me]

I have...

Had a similar dilema at my brothers mobile home he used to have...main cast iron sewer pipe was leaking where it joined galvanized pipe,packed with melted lead,and oakum,probably done in the 50's..!

A retired plumber friend from his place of work showed us how to remove the galvanized pipe easily(in a crawl space with little to no room for tools or pipe wrenches too! )..he said look for the nearest elbow or other cast fitting,and whack it hard with a ball peen hammer! --we did as he said..with 3 good whacks the elbow shattered,and we removed to galvanized pipe going to the trailer..now for the cast iron pipe ..

His friend had the right tool,a chain wrench you tightend until it cracks the pipe..but it wouldn't fit where it needed to be!..so we ended up drilling a zillion 1/4" holes all the way around the pipe,and scored it with a hacksaw blade--then we took a chisel and the hammer to it!..To our suprise,it broke rather easily,and not too ragged..a few spots we cleaned up by using an adjustible wrench to snap off a few smaller peices to even the "cut" out..we then put a rubber coupling with hose clamps on it..never leaked again,until the trailer was gutted by a backhoe and removed 12 years later...

My brother was glad to see PVC pipe in his "new to him" home!...