Chromatography Forum

I don't need 50' of copper tubing, and I don't need $11/foot special stainless stuff. Is there a vendor out there that sells short lengths (3-5') of GC-grade, pre-cleaned copper tubing in 1/4" and 1/8" sizes?

(Failing that- anyone out there willing to sell me some? Can't find any on eBay.)

Supelco and Alltech Grace and Restek should be able to help you.

I am certain there are more vendors out there as well, but these three should be enough to price what you want.

best wishes,

Rod

Thor2202,

ACE hardware store if you live in the US. Go down and get 1/8" copper tubing by the foot from them. You may want to clean it after that (I bake it....) On the other hand, I bet you will find you buy five 10' sections over the course of the coming year.... Very useful stuff.

Best regards,

AICMM

Geez - is it even worth trying to save $$$ by NOT buying a 50 foot coil of copper tubing - like hunting around for shorter pieces also costs money????

Trying to "save money" with this exercise makes me wonder if you have one syringe, one beaker, etc....tell management to get real !!!!

Geez - is it even worth trying to save $$$ by NOT buying a 50 foot coil of copper tubing - like hunting around for shorter pieces also costs money????

Trying to "save money" with this exercise makes me wonder if you have one syringe, one beaker, etc....tell management to get real !!!!

Well, it's a personal set-up; I have two GCs, both purchased on the cheap, and now I just need some copper tubing. I don't need 50' when I just need a 3' piece to go from the hydrogen gas generator to the GC.

So, "management" is pretty nutty to begin with, but the underlying project is worthwhile.

Maybe I'll try to bake out some hardware-store stuff; at my day job, we always just bought GC-grade tubing, never had to pre-treat tubing to get it clean before.

You can buy GC grade cleaned tubing in short pieces from Supelco.

Ask for overnight delivery?

I wouldn't bother with hardstore stuff.

best wishes,

Rod

If you are going to bake out hadware store tubing, solvent rinse it first. I've seen solvents used to rines tubing before baking - and the rinse came out yellow. I do not count on baking to remove large quantities of materials like oil. I do count on poorly volatile molecues to slowly migrate into an instrument.

All very good points- but I lack the MeCl to do a proper solvent rinse. In fact, I lack a lot of things; perhaps carb cleaner would do the same thing, but then I still lack a good gas purge for the bake.

I've contacted a couple of vendors of used systems, hoping to score some tubing; I remain hopeful that my (only marginally crazy) project will come together.

Do they make pesticide grade carb cleaner? I would have a concern about poorly volatile residues, such as would be in a light oil - and would not be a problem in a carbarator.

Refrigeration grade copper, which is easy to find, shouldn't have any oil residue. Personally, I would wash the tubing with acetone. I've seen more problems from dust or dirt in the tubing.

I would not risk refrigeration grade; I have seen refrigeration grade copper with enough oil in it to run out of the end when the tube was heated with a flow of gas through it.

Peter

Refrigeration grade tubing is famous as a problem for instrument contamination.