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The world of pipe fittings

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Re: The world of pipe fittings

#171

Post by berjin »

jkqwzsoo wrote: post #9

In case anyone from the US reads this, BSPP and BSPT fittings are rare and incredibly frustrating here, as our NPT (National Pipe Taper) threads are different and the selection of BSP(P/T) fittings is extremely poor in comparison. Also, I work with NPT fittings quite a lot: > For what it’s worth, I tightly wrap the tape 10 times round the male thread and get an enraged mountain gorilla to tighten it up. This is a WTF…

If you want a really good seal you wrap the tape 1-2 overlaps at the start of the thread and progressively make it thicker and thicker so you have more overlaps (10x) at the base. I guess it depends on the fittings but some run out of tapper and you can't tighten it anymore without the hexagonal nut hitting the adjacent fitting. This works well as you're building your own tapper which is sort of acting as an o-ring.

Generally BSP male fittings are always tapped which is why they don't mention it.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#172

Post by [deleted] »

jkqwzsoo wrote: post #9

In case anyone from the US reads this, BSPP and BSPT fittings are rare and incredibly frustrating here, as our NPT (National Pipe Taper) threads are different and the selection of BSP(P/T) fittings is extremely poor in comparison. Also, I work with NPT fittings quite a lot: > For what it’s worth, I tightly wrap the tape 10 times round the male thread and get an enraged mountain gorilla to tighten it up. This is a WTF…

[deleted]

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#173

Post by dhosek »

Of the three aspects of home maintenance that are most common¹: plumbing, electrical and carpentry, I feel most comfortable with plumbing. It seems nicely discrete in that you’re generally putting together existing components without having to do much if any measuring and cutting. That said, I’m moving into a new house where I’ve got a handful of carpentry projects that will definitely stretch my abilities in that arena.

⸻

1. In my experience, I suppose, one could perhaps add concrete/masonry and may be something with dirt?

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#174

Post by jimnotgym »

skeptical_dog wrote: post #30
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To really hold it together, the plumber would pour molten lead on top of the oakum. This is pretty interesting, because plumbers are called 'lead-pourers' (loodgieters) in Dutch, and I had always wondered why.

The english word, too, is derived from the Latin for lead: plumbum.

In fact some plumbers still do lead work. Lead sheet roof flashings are common in the UK. Roofers can beat it into certain shapes, but if you need something more complex you would get a plumber to weld it for you.

I learnt to lead-weld (with oxy acetylene) in the past and found it very satisfying...

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#175

Post by ssl232 »

weare138 wrote: post #152
victor9000 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was tricky about it? Having never done it, it seems somewhat straight forward in my mind.

The process itself is straight forward but I had to work in a really tight space under the sink. That was really what made it a pain in the ass. I had to lay on my back and cram myself underneath the sink in the cabinet to reach everything plus I'm a 6' tall goon so that definitely wasn't helping either. You're just stuck in an awkward and uncomfortable position most of the time.

Same experience installing a dishwasher. Inside a small cavity accessible only by climbing over my new dishwasher and avoiding the existing washing machine, crouching using leg muscles I rarely ever use, with the only light coming from a torch, on flooring made damp from dripping pipes that I hadn't tightened enough, arms getting sore from lifting them above my shoulders for extended periods, I understood why plumbers get paid what they get paid.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#176

Post by jimnotgym »

toast0 wrote: post #88
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally the market is supposed to correct these things but sadly we've created a culture that looks down on physical labour. Now there is a small group that can charge whatever they want.

They can't charge that much or people will do their own plumbing. It's fussy, but most routine things aren't too hard to do one step at a time. Sometimes you get a new faucet with an internal leak though, experience might have helped diagnose that without taking everything apart 20 times. Sometimes there's a big job like replacing a lateral, which is yeah, time to hire a pro.

In the UK gas work is regulated so only a registered plumber can do it.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#177

Post by CamperBob2 »

georgeoliver wrote: post #93
agsamek wrote: post #66

This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;) Plumbing is hard because it is not forgiving. It's as binary as IT except you can learn the outcome with some delay, once you learnt about a damage caused by a leak. Either you do a pressure tests right or repair can be expensive. And bugfixing is always tricky. Water also goes down whether you like it…

I had a funny experience a week ago. One night working on a hobby web project it took me three or four hours to debug something, I finally got to bed around midnight thinking "boy, programming is hard". The next day at work we had to find a broken heat wire in a tiled bathroom floor, running 1000 volts through the wires to try to fuse the broken wire, then heating the floor up and searching with heat-sensitive paper…

Time-domain reflectometry. To Google it is to love it.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#178

Post by beerandt »

robocat wrote: post #157
beerandt wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the meaning is to plumb, as in to level, as in to get water flowing downhill. The lead refers to the (lead) plumb bob used to determine the direction of vertical and therefore what's level.

https://etymology.en-academic.com/27822/plumber https://etymology.en-academic.com/27820/plumb It appears you are wrong, and the person you are replying to was correct. Perhaps when baldly contradicting someone, you could make some effort to back up your opinion.

The first 2 meanings of plumb from the site you link is:

https://etymology.en-academic.com/27820/plumb

plumb plumb {{11}}plumb (adj.) "perpendicular, vertical," mid-15c., from PLUMB (Cf. plumb) (n.). The notion of "exact measurement" led to extended sense of "completely, downright" (1748), sometimes spelled plump or plunk.

{{12}}plumb (n.) c.1300, "lead hung on a string to show the vertical line," from O.Fr. plombe, plomme "sounding lead," from L.L. plumba, originally plural of L. plumbum "lead," the metal, of unknown origin, related to Gk. molybdos "lead"

Neither have anything to do with pouring molten lead. Only measuring the vertical.

The purpose of finding the vertical is to determine the horizontal in installing sloped pipe.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#179

Post by ssl232 »

swayvil wrote: post #120

Given the choice, I love pex and those compression-bands that you put on with the special pliers. Pex got flex. For drains, pvc of course. Given run-of-the-mill refurbby waterline junk with plain ol copper, I like that brass kind of compression with the little sleeve. Don't trust sharkbite. Am a mediocre sweater. For gas, threaded with that pipe goo works surprisingly well. Haven't fucked it up yet. I wonder if you c…

You do your own gas work? I'm in the UK and I'm pretty sure you basically cannot legally touch gas fittings unless you're a qualified plumber.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#180

Post by joshuaheard »

I had to learn the arcane world of pipe fitting sizes working with pneumatics for a scuba equipment project. It is extremely confusing. Unfortunately, it can have fatal consequences. In a recent story, a scuba store employee used the wrong size fitting on a 3,000 psi scuba tank which shot out and killed them.

Seeing that American can't even adopt the metric system, I have little hope for a clear international standard for pipe fittings.

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