Your standard pipe cutter is about as useful in a tight space as a snowplow in a hallway. It’s too chunky, and you can’t spin it around the pipe without scraping your knuckles on the wall.
Enter the mini pipe cutter. It’s the tiny, adorable cousin of the big one, and it fits where your fingers barely can. Think of it as a miniature guillotine for copper, but way less dramatic.
If you can’t find a mini cutter, grab a hacksaw with a high-tension blade. Just be warned: you’ll be sawing in an arc smaller than a coffee cup, and your wrist will hate you by the third stroke.
The “Autopsy” of a Tight Space
Before you cut, you have to see what you’re doing. That means contorting your body into positions that would make a yoga instructor weep with envy. I once lay on my back with my head under a sink, legs out the door, just to get a look at the pipe.
Pro tip: use a small mirror and a flashlight. Tape the mirror to a toothbrush handle if you have to. It’s like performing surgery on a contortionist, but the patient is a pipe, and you’re the stressed-out doctor.
