So, recently, I got addicted to small-scale steam engines. I decided it was time to buy one. I went to a model shop, and the cheapest model's price was... 250 bucks. Heck, I could buy a car with that much money. So I decided that I was going to build my own steam engine. I scrounged the internet for some schematics, and started gathering parts. Milk can - OK. Blowtorch - OK. Distilled water - OK. Bicicle parts - OK. Copper/brass tubes - not OK.

The problem is, thin copper tubes are kinda hard to come by. As far as I know, the only places where those tubes can be scavenged from are fridges, water purifiers and old mining helmets. Fridges are too expensive, water purifiers are even harder to come by, and I don't want to take apart my mining helmet. So, does anyone here know any other machines that have scavengeable copper tubing? Before anyone goes saying that I should just go to the hardware store and buy some tubes, that is not an option, as copper is not cheap and I've already spent most of my money buying this oversized wrench: (don't ask why)



Thanks in advance.

Old piping, if you try and call someone who is a plumber, and ask if you can have all the old piping, i'm sure there is some stuff you can have, we had a plumber who left a bag of like valves and tubes, and a odd whistle thingy, i tried to assemble them all and ended up with an odd instrument like thing, if you blew down one end the valves clicked and the whistles whistled, it was like a clockwork bird song.... And you could probably get copper piping from a scrapyard.

How much copper pipe do you need? If it's not that large, you could just try craigslist. Alot of people have some chunk pipes lying around. Atleast alot of people I know. My dad for example always has atleast 10 feet of piping and pipe solder lying around.

Thanks, but I don't think that will work. I don't need plumbing pipe, I have plenty of that. What I need is that very thin copper pipe that is found, for example, on the lower part of a fridge's motor. ( I have to stop deciding to make complex things... )

must it be copper?

Copper is one of the better conductors of heat. For it to be efficient, yes, it must be copper. Also I imagine it's part of the look he's going for too.

Well, problem solved. Managed to scavenge brass tubes from an unlikely source: broken crossbow bolts.
Not only are they the exact width I needed, but also have a copper-like colour. Lucky me!