ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion The Joys of a Maine Winter and Conduits

John there was an article in an old trade magazine that told the story of a water company doing this to thaw their water lines and burning down a few houses in the neighbor hood.

I can not remember what the actual cause was but it turned out there was a wiring problem that did not show up until they applied some current to the water lines.

I was working in Augusta but I live in Bucksport.

Wasn't worried about back feeding anything as its a bulk plant in the middle of a field. The building you see is 7 by 20, actually built around a 4 posted steel canopy like you'd see in a gas staion. The building will be unheated and only houses a sub panel, a couple of 4 ft lights, a tank moniter and 4 5hp pumps. The loading rack ( for home heating oil trucks) is on the roof of the building. If we could have thawed the pie with steam thats how we would have done it. It was a welder or a jack hammer.

I have a friend who made a very good suplametal income thawing water pipes this way in the foothills west of Denver. Wore out one engine driven welder and bought another best suited for just that job. Otherwise, he was a professional welder by trade.

They do make a machine to do just this.... amazing thing is..... it looks JUST like a welder

e57 - Heated fish tape.. no problem, tie a wire to the head (leave plenty of lead hanging out of the pipe), tie the lead on the head to the + and the rear of the pipe to the - of the welder and viola, heated fish tape.

We don't normally have to use this method for conduits in Virginia, but I have very often used it for plumbing pipes.

Once when I worked at the Prison, we had a 2" water line going up into a tower. I was at the tower for another reason when the plumber came by to see what he could do with the water. As we are checking outside, the welder rides by, we flag him down.

No biggy, we hook up one lead up top, one lead down below. This tower was near one of our farm offices, "Hey guys, I've got coffee in here" said one particularly friendly farm guy. Figuring it will take this 2" pipe a long time to thaw, we proceed OUT of the cold into warm java.

Yeah, seeeeee, THAT'S a mistake. Yup, melted all the joints.... but the water was flowing

Good thing we had plenty of inmates looking for something to do that day. Unfortunately, you can only let them so close to the head of the tower.

Hey, how do you thaw a PVC pipe?????

Aw, c'mon George...... Everybody knows you just connect it to the welder with plastic conductors!

Thawing a plastic pie with wires in it, would require waiting till spring or digging.Without wires, I'd use a wallpaper steamer and plastic tubing. Push it up the pipe, vac out the water. Slow but it works.

"Yup, melted all the joints.... "
Seen a transmitter aerial/antenna made from copper plumbing by a radio amateur. When high power was put into it, the solder melted. It seems solder has a much higher resistance than copper.

Submitted for TwinCitySparky





Thanks for sending them in, looks like a nice rig.

Bob

I'm sure I have in my collection of old books one from the earliest decades of the 20th century explaining how to thaw fire hydrants using I^2R. There is also a detailed description of how to dry out flooded xfmr and motor windings by the same method.

Of course, you do hazard the unpredictable effects of stray currents this way. Some of these same publications recommend using one's tongue to test the polarity of DC circuits, or dangling a candle at the end of a length of solid #12 to explore hollow walls...

We have learned a great deal about safety since then.

Now, the closed-loop hot water deal, that's clever. It makes me so glad I live in central Texas where I don't have to be that clever!

BTW since this OP I have purchaced a welder - a wire feed.

On the water method how do you get the water out? Swab and vaccum?