Removing paint from copper pipe

[JeffH]

Cleaning up outdoor copper before sweating. Any tips & tricks? I usually torch it to remove most of the paint, then wet sand to clean whatever residue is left. Any other tried and true techniques?

[Cass]

That should work.

[Gary Swart]

The only other way I know of to remove paint is with paint stripper. I might consider that if I wanted to clean all of the paint from the entire length of pipe, but just to clean up a few inches on an end to prep for sweating, what you're doing is OK.

[kordts]

Usually I just burn the paint off with my torch. Then I clean it.

[GrumpyPlumber]

I use my channel locks LIGHTLY to break the paint into flakes...then sand it.