Cleaning radiator pipe tails

[ss]

The tails on my radiators are messy mainly from previous owners not so much painting them but with being part painted when they have tried to paint the skirtings. Some are not particularly straight so rules out the chrome type sheath. I could paint them but would prefer to strip the existing paint and go back to clean copper. It is microbore so my main concern would be in using sandpaper that I break through the wall and cause a lesk. Any ideas for cleaning the paint off.

[alan_m]

Get the paint off first with a gel paint stripper and then use dish washing sponges with the attached green scouring pad and/or wire wool.

[Mike Clarke]

The risk of sanding through the pipe wall will be pretty near zero. The "micro" refers to the bore not the wall thickness.

Just cut a strip of abrasive paper, wrap it half way round the pipe and pull the ends to and fro until you see shiny copper.

[The Natural Philosopher]

wire wool is good too.

[tabbypurr]

+1. Annoyingly slow though.

I'm reluctant to use wire wool as metal impurities used to corrode holes in copper pipe.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

but wire wool is not metal impurities in the pipe.

[Harry Bloomfield]

ss has brought this to us :

It will not usually be well attached to the copper. To get the thickest off, a pair of pliers which have the curved grip just placed around the pipe will take much of it off, then finish with a strip of abrasive.

[tabbypurr]

they will. odds are they'll also permanently scrape & scratch the pipe.

NT

[newshound]

Ideally you don't want to let fragments of wire wool get into the open pipe, but apart from that you won't do any harm using it to abrade the outside.

[newshound]

Sorry I only just saw about the paint. The method I usually use is to scrape the pipe axially with a sharp blade such as a penknife or Stanley knife, held perpendicular to the surface. After you get 90% off (by flaking), the rest will come off easily with abrasive or wire wool.

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] presented the following explanation :

Shallow scratches will not matter if it is being repainted, but what I found was that the sharp V's in the pliers would fill up with removed paint, long before they could begin to scratch.

[Brian Reay]

Paint does 'stick' to copper that well in most cases so a bit of paint stripper/acetone and a pan scrub will probably shift it and polish the pipe at the same time.