OT: Plumbing conspiracy? my theory

Well said, Michael, well said!

Absolutely! Don't meekly give in to the plumbing oppressors. Buy a lathe and some brass stock, and join the anti-plumbing resistance front!

You forgot about the part where they decided that the measurements were absolutely meaningless. I've yet to find anything 1/4" about 1/4" pipe.

-- Bill Browne Excalibur

Claims, Taft-Hartley Fund, & Pension Administration Software

Someone once told me that the 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" etc refered to some standard pipe size dreamt up about 100 years ago where the inside diameter was 1/4",

3/8", 1/2" etc. These days their must be as many different pipe dimensions available off the self as their are ' standard fittings ' to match them. If Bill Gates had invented pipe threads at least just about everyone would be forced to use the same stuff ! ( and you'd probably have to patch up the pipes every few days )

Dean.

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

Dean

You obviously don't program on Bill Gate's product :-) Window OS and all the various languages that hang off it are one of the most maddening mazes I've ever gotten caught in. It's like everyone at MS decided to reinvent their own version of the wheel. By comparison, plumbing is easy (though I did find our laundry tub taps were a mix of metric and English, in no discernible pattern.)

Jim

Maybe a Canadian installed them? ;-)

Tim

-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

The availability of a pipe fitting is inversely proportional to your need for such a fitting, the time it takes to get to the hardware store and the time to closing on a weekend. If you've got bad juju, you'll get there and they'll have the bin, but it'll be empty. If you're somewhat lucky, they'll have one less than what you need, no reserve stock in the back room and the other hardware store that carries such stuff will be closed by the time you get there. Flare nut fittings, compression fittings and all brass pipe fittings are particularly prone to that.

Stan

And to expand on the plumbing fiasco, I went to the local plumbing supply to get some copper for air lines. Got the tube I needed and some fittings, go to the counter and the gal asked if I found everything. I says yeah, pretty sure. So while we're working on the tally I mentioned it would be cool if "they" made a such and such, as I had not seen it in the bins. Plus it would only be one piece between line and quick coupler, saving some extra parts and soldering.

She tells me she "thinks" those are available but if they are, they are back-ordered.

Hmm, figures I say, and it would really be neat if I could get one like that but with....

She tells me that she knows they do make that, but that those are definitely on back-order.

I thought it odd that when I told her my theory on 5 instead of 1 for plumbing, she saw absolutely no humour in it. Wonder why?

michael

-- release the fish from the net to reply

This is why old plumbers can never really retire- they usually have a large and varied selection of fittings and pipe bits left over that are not available from any other source, such as adapter fittings to join a 50 year old system to an 80 y.o. one with a few modern bits in between.

Where I live we have a few young plumbers who get all the work in new buildings, and two officially retired ones who grumble a lot but are always called upon to do the dirty work involving rusty old pipes in sewage-filled ditches because noone else seems able to get the neccesary parts or even identify the "standards" involved. Often the stuff they repair was originally laid down by someone who was the "officially retired" plumber way back when they were apprentices, and they took over that ancient plumber's stock of spare parts when he died. So if you need some oddball plumbing parts, ask some local older people if they know who used to do plumbing work a few decades ago, and they might direct you to a retiree with a shed full of fittings.

-- Aamund Breivik

?

1" ~ 2" pipe uses the same thread. What r u talking 'bout?

We once used one plumbing company for all our older rental units. 2000 apartments and single families up to 100 years old. They gradually built up a substantial collection of rare and unusual parts. About 3 years ago they informed us that they would no longer be in the repair business. They were making more money in rare parts with less hassle that in the repair business.

I stopped by the other day looking for some washers for a 1928 Speakman Mixomatic shower valve that has not been made in 60 years. There must be 50,000 different parts in this place but Hopkins walked directly to them without referring to any parts manual like he gets requests for them every day.

If you think regular plumbing fixtures are bad try hydraulic and fuel line fittings. 37º, 45º, straight threads with and without O rings, Some measured from the tube OD others from the thread size of the nut and others with dash numbers. I am going crazy trying to find fittings for a pair of Racor filters.

Watch it Tim! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

would be cool

only be one

back-order.

So take the extra male quick connect fitting, polish it down by a half thou., insert the male QC end into the reamed 1/2" OD copper tube, apply liberal allowance of silver solder; repeat on the other end, and you have a custom length pipe nipple. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

And the "old guy" knows that #xxx, "yy" street, has a second sanitary connection to the other street. Been there and took advantage of that! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

counter and the

would be cool

would only be one

but with....

on back-order.

Have done that and similar type of fitment on occasion.

Silver solder, wonderful stuff.

michael

-- release the fish from the net to reply

Like the time the former owner of this house had installed the downstairs toilet on a 4" high platform of one bag layers of sack - crete because that's how high the rough-in stub was cut off. The horizontal waste pipe was only an inch below the floor surface,so I faced off the toilet flange, butchered the elbow and silver soldered the two together. Don't try this with PVC unless you have much more talent than I. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

That brought to mind the construction of a departed friend's shop building where I occupied space for some years. Some of the sub work was done by people that were longtime pals, beer buddies, etc. So the man on the backhoe figured he would do something nice for the plumber when trenching for the line out to the septic. He figured the plumber would like to stand instead of crawl in the trench and dug it 3' deeper. Cutting to the chase, my friend ended up buying a pump to move the waste up 3' so it would get into the tank. Payday is Friday and shit goes.........I think he forgot that part.

michael