Reddit reviews RIDGID 32975 Model 103 Close Quarters Tubing Cutter, 1/8-inch to 5/8-inch Tube Cutter

Without tools, the best you can really do is look for oiliness on the pipe. When you find a joint that feels oily (look for dark colours on the pipe, usually covered in very fine dust. Once you rub the dusty area with your fingers you'll feel the oiliness), spray/pour a small amount of washing up liquid over it and look for bubbles. If there's any refrigerant left in the system, you'll usually see bubbles appear (or over a longer period, foam). Of course if the gas has all escaped already - and we're only talking a couple of hundred grams here - then you won't see any bubbles.

Most domestic gear has no access fitting at all so even locating the leak can be difficult if there's no visual indication. You need to get pressure in there so you can leak test - this means adding a bullet piercing valve (like this).

Then you need to put something in via your bullet piercing valve to raise the system pressure. It's best to use dry nitrogen to leak test to save wasting refrigerant, but since you most likely don't have that on hand you could buy yourself some refrigerant (most likely R134a) and pressurise with that. That's a big no-no here (both disposable cylinders and dumping gas to atmosphere by charging a system with a known leak) but I'm guessing your in the US, and those sorts of laws seem remarkably lax so go for gold. It's not like you'll be ruining MY ozone layer too, right? ;)

You also need to regulate the pressure going in to the system. This is where you need gauges. Connect the yellow line to your bottle, connect the blue line loosely to your bullet piercing valve, purge from cylinder to piercing valve by opening the cylinder tap + gauges tap, and releasing some pressure via the loose fitting, then tighten the fitting and close your gauges tap. Open the bullet piercing valve. Open the gauges tap slowly and give it ~50psi of system pressure.

Then you can go for gold with your soap, or you can lash out and grab yourself some "proper" leak detection fluid (like this), or better yet an electronic leak detector (like this one).

Once you've found your leak, you want to release your nitrogen (or reclaim your refrigerant using a reclaim plant and a spare cylinder), then repair it using an oxy/acetalyne set, or since it's only tiny pipework you can get away with a MAPP gas set.

If it's a copper->copper joint, you're laughing - polish the pipework up with emery cloth, heat the pipe until it's just this side of glowing red, and feed the joint with brown tip silver solder.

If it's a copper->steel joint, then it's a bit more of a pain. You need blue tip silver solder and flux. Clean your joint with the emery cloth, give it a nice coating of flux on every surface you need solder to stick to, then heat it up until it's a fair way short of glowing red. Feed the blue tip solder in and STOP. Unlike brown tip (15% silver) you can't just keep feeding blue tip (45% silver) as it ruins the weld.

Now, since you put on a bullet piercing valve and they leak like a sieve in the long term, we need to replace that with a schrader access valve. Since it's most likely going to be in a straight through piece of pipe, you can save time and grab yourself a pre made access valve in 1/4" pipe. Cut away the hole left by the bullet piercing valve, polish the copper and cut the pipework with a ~10mm gap using a tube cutter. Then slip your access fitting assembly in there, and follow the copper->copper joint procedure.

Of course, now that we've done all that you need to change the liquid line filter drier too. I'd recommend a 1/4" solder in core drier in place of the original copper spun drier because... well, copper spun driers are terrible. Follow the pipe cutting procedure from the piercing valve instructions and the soldering instructions from the copper->copper joint instructions and that's done too. Remember - always try and mount the drier so it's outlet is LOWER than its inlet. This turns the drier into a small liquid receiver and helps ensure a good liquid seal over the capillary tube. Speaking of capillary tubes, if it was inserted straight into the original copper spun drier CUT the capillary, don't try and unsweat it. The chances of blocking it up are about 82.5634% (approximately) when you unsweat capillarys. You're much better off chopping it with a set of capillary tube cutters and ensuring a good clean capillary. The ~30mm of wasted capillary will affect performance, but almost certainly not to any sort of measurable degree.

Then give the system a good evacuation using a vacuum pump and ensure it reaches a good vacuum (sub-500 micron) with a digital vacuum gauge.

Then using a set of electronic scales, charge your freshly evacuated system (remembering to purge!) to the charge recommended by the manufacturer.

Voila! You have just fixed your chest freezer.

..... Alternatively, pay someone to do it for you and/or recycle the components and buy yourself a new one.

To cut the pipe, any pipe cutter should work like this.

Personally I would take measurements with some string or twine to get a close accurate length of the tube to be cut. Alternatively, you could purchase a foot of regular tubing to use as your measuring device. A few inches on either side is a bit much but when it comes to tubing, it is ALWAYS better to leave too much than too little.

Super easy with one of these..
RIDGID 32975 Model 103 Close Quarters Tubing Cutter, 1/8-inch to 5/8-inch Tube Cutter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LDGNCU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gVIvCbPDB4Z10

Wheel one for sure.

Used this one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LDGNCU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Buy a flaring tool. They're cheap usually. Same with the cutter and bender. You can use lines from Napa as well as the fittings. Just use the same size line as what's being replaced. If you can't find a fitting that mates with the old one you can always replace the old fitting by cutting the flare off the line, sliding a new one on, and then reflaring.

I had to replace all the lines on my father in law's F350 and once you get it down its pretty cake.

oh! Ok, so we bought copper tubing that you can purchase in the plumbing section of Home Depot, we also got the copper elbows and tri...bows... to fit, and if you choose to make this, buy a pipe cutter. It was pretty simple! Then we bought a large .5" sheet of plywood, I think it was 6'x4', birch maybe? It was pretty cheap. Then we used a circular saw to cut out the middle, and tied it to the copper with the twine. the copper is fairly thin, so we used a plumbing glue to keep the pieces together and stable. I had the "king and queen" made from Etsy.

http://www.amazon.com/Ridgid-32975-8-Inch-Quarters-Tubing/dp/B000LDGNCU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394220300&sr=8-1&keywords=small+pipe+cutter

I've used one of these to open hard plastic ones.

You can't unscrew it because it's a compression fitting. Meaning there's a brass ring behind the nut in the valve which becomes compressed to create the water tight fit and hold he valve in place. This ring and the nut won't come off.

You need something like this. They're sold anywhere plumbing supplies are.

Ridgid Tools 32975 1/8-Inch To 5/8-Inch Close Quarters Tubing Cutter https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000LDGNCU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_XLBrDbP96EPJK

As said... a hacksaw will do the job.

Any decent pipe cutter will work... but it'll take you s'more time to cut through chromed steel vs copper or whatever.

Sawzall with a metal blade.

Bandsaw.

Grinder with a metal wheel.

I'm sure there are others.

What I'm wondering though... is how fucking low you play your hihat that necessitates cutting the stand.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B000LDGNCU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

That's what I used to cut 12mm acrylic. Worked very well for me

You'll need a small tubing cutter. Like this. You can get away with compression fittings as they should hold the pressure. Should be no need to flare the ends.

Hacksaw. Or... https://www.amazon.com/RIDGID-32975-Quarters-Tubing-Cutter/dp/B000LDGNCU/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=pipe+cutter&qid=1567027857&s=gateway&sr=8-3

What NinjaCoder said. After you resolve the water at the source, you can use a hacksaw, Sawzall, Dremel or a copper pipe cutter like this to cut off the hosebib.

From what i've read you can just use a normal pipe cutter that you would use for copper pipes and such. If you don't have one in your house you can get them pretty damn cheap.

One of these could do it.. Wrong size but you get the idea. Thieves in my dispatch area have been busted with those and ceramic spark plug tops for breaking windows.