Thanks for that advice. Sorry, I was out-of-pocket for a couple days,  
but do have a valve in need of attention soon.

On Oct 13, 2009, at 8:33 PM, Bob Kennedy wrote:

> You won't burn your fingers off, take it from someone who has been  
> cooked too many times to remember. It only takes propane to remove a  
> shut off. I've lost my grip on an oxy acetylene torch and the flame  
> ran across my hand and fingers of the other hand on the way down.  
> That is so hot it almost feels cold for a very short time... I  
> thought they were going to start calling me Char lee.
>
> Don't be afraid of working with propane, just be respectful. When I  
> work in a tight place that could cause a problem, I have an aluminum  
> cake pan I use as a heat shield. I put the rim against the wall and  
> the bottom closest to the flame. That gives some dead space for the  
> heat to dissipate and I haven't lost a house yet to my plumbing.  
> Lost one to a chimney fire, but I had some help with that...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Scott Howell
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 5:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Plumbing rough in
>
> Dan,
>
> I just cut them off. I haven't had enough experience with a torch to
> trust myself not to burn the house down or my fingers off. grin
> The former gate valves were soldered on. However, when I had my
> previous townhouse, they had compression fittings on those old valves
> and I was able to just replace those valves with ball valves since the
> compression ring wasn't going to come off. I swear by these valves, I
> have not had one go bad on me yet. In fact I'm going to replace the
> old gate valve on the supply line for the water heater since the old
> one amazed me and held, but barely and it required a set of plyers to
> move it. Don't want frozen valves in an emergency. grin
>
> On Oct 12, 2009, at 9:41 PM, Dan Rossi wrote:
>
> > Scott,
> >
> > You said that you ran around your house replacing all the shut-offs
> > with
> > the ball valves. How did you remove the old valves? Did you heat  
> them
> > and pull them apart? Or did you cut them off and hope for enough
> > slack?
> > Or, were the old one's compression fittings also and you were able
> > to pry
> > them apart?
> >
> > Just curious.
> >
> > --
> > Blue skies.
> > Dan Rossi
> > Carnegie Mellon University.
> > E-Mail: [email protected]
> > Tel: (412) 268-9081
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> 



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