Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

[Syty]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I found best solution to all water and gease based stains.... Spray Oven Cleaner. It is amazing for cleaning carpets

 

[tamz]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Following a post in the engineers toolbox thread where i mentioned i carried 2 junior hacksaws, one cut down for tight working. This was a tip i learned from an old head in the first week i started.
Take a junior hacksaw and straighten the end out. Saw off the front leg just before the bend and cut a saw draft in it.
You should now have a saw that looks like this

2 pipes close together, no movement to get in? This will cut it.

 

[kel4783]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Go on you tube and type in toms top tips some good stuff on there
"Hello everybody and welcom to toms top tips"

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Good idea with the hacksaw Tamz....I should add, I would probably use the Bosch multisaw in that scenario now....but before I just used to wrap insulating tape around a hacksaw blade, and use the blade bare.

Another tip I have is for people to buy a Dremel, or a copy cat of a dremel.

My father (plumber/heating engineer for over 30 years) laughed when I bought one...

He bought himself one last year. So handy. I mainly use it if I want to cut a waste pipe in a confined posistion. (I know the nylon string trick BTW!!)....I put the Dremel head into the pipe and with a cutting disk, cut the pipe from the inside.

I've also used it to cut copper pipe which is confined and you can't get a saw in to cut it.

I buy the discs cheap on ebay. Diamond coated ones and metal cutting ones (which are basically a mini angle grinder disc).

 

[tamz]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

You know, when i was young i spent years cutting out fireplaces. A 4lb hammer wasn't big or fast enough. I had a 6lb hammer. I grew arms like popeye using it.
Now if i have to get the 4lb hammer out the van i near have a blackout thinking of it. My arms start burning in under a minute!
You just get unaccustomed to it and used to power tools for everything.

 

[kel4783]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

stuff a little bit of bread in the pipe. will flush out when u put water on!

 

[wiggers]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

when freezing pipework with a can, always have your pipeslice to hand and a push fit coupler connected to small piece of copper then an isovalve in the open position then if your having a nervy time if ice plug goes your ready to shove on your coupler once on close off iso then go and dry off!!

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Think I've mentioned this before, but when freezing and you're not sure you have a plug formed do either of these:

Drill a very small hole (in the area you are going to cut) with a small HSS drill. If it spurts loads of water and isn't frozen, then simply wind a bit of PTFE on a screw and thread it into the hole. Then try to freeze it again. (Remember you will always have some water, so you need to let it drain into something for a minute or so before you deem it not frozen).

My other method I've never had to use as its only really for 15mm and that freezes so easily. However you may wish to do this if its a high risk pipe, like a main.

Use one of these:
**** Supreme Plumbing & Electrical Supplies >> 15mm X 3/4 Inch Self Cutting Washing Machine Taps with Check Valve - WMV005-SCCV ****

a self cutting washing machine tap. Costs under four quid, and very handy.....and can be used as above in place of the PTFE screw. It will gove you more control too.

I keep one in stock not because I would ever fit one....but if I have a heating system with no drain valves, I can use it to drain a heating system, and then cut a drain valve in.

I attach an old washing machine hose to the valve...which has a small section of 15mm copper pipe pushed into the hose and that attaches to my 30 meter hose. All secured with jubilee clips.

PS - You can also buy them in 22mm for a few quid more.

Also remember, if something isn't frozen and you disturb it, you are starting from scratch with the new plug. So give it more than you did on the last failed plug. Be it time (with an electric freezer, or spray/gas).

 

[WaterTight]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I've now successfully frozen - without incident - pipes on about 40 jobs. And I still find it stressful. Because 95% of the time it's on rads and there's often not as much pipe as you'd like and keeping the freezing clamp heads dry is a mini-artform. Plumbing is not a delicate job but you sort of decide you want to treat pipes and valves more delicately when they're frozen and so every time you knock it about more than you're trying to your heart rate goes up. Like when you're changing a rad valve and the freezing clamp has to be quite close to the valve. It all gets a bit ...focused.

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Totally agree. Nothing sharpens the senses more than putting the ceiling down stairs on the line. Never had one go wrong personally.

My father who did industrial pipe work for years had a specialist company out to freeze a big water main. I don't know what size, but bigger than domestic. He was told by the engineer in charge of the ice plug that it was ok to start cutting the pipe with the oxy torch.

Which he did. No problem at first, and then whoooomp. The plug shot out like a bullet, and he said the boiler room was knee deep in water by the time he got to the door.

Someone must have got the sack for that.

 

[rideorhide]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Look after your knees!

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I never use those little freezer cans, pure diy and not in way as reliable as a proper freezer.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

For oil burners - if you get a noisy whizzing sound it's usually the motor bearings bust. Firstly you need a suitable micro bearing puller to get the fan and bearings off.

Don't spend lots of money on replacement bearings from the plumbers merchants. Pop along to your local car spares dealer and get a pair of 6202 RS alternator bearings which are the same and a fraction of the cost.

 

[Best]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

If trying to put new standard bearings on to tight motor shaft without damaging them, use a brass ball valve tail, (without the nut). It is a perfect size for many motors. Push the tread end over shaft & against the new bearings centre, & simply tap with mallet. Be careful with new bearings that are too slack on shafts of any machinery, as shaft will wear. Try marking the shaft with a metal punch, so bearing then fits tight.

 

[GQuigley67]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

a guide cut in half is good for pulling tight offsets on a handy bender

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Carry a small bottle of anti bacterial hand gel in your tool box. Handy if the water is off and you need to clean your hands.

The blue shoe covers are perfect for slipping over smoke alarms to stop nuisance alarms from soldering.

When looking at work to quote, always snap photos with your phone/digi cam to help remind you visually after you get home and write it up.

If you have an andoid or (as I do) an iPhone. Download a free torch application that turns the flash of the camera into a torch. Very handy as you will always have your phone in your pocket, but not always have a torch.

On the subject of torches, buy a head torch. Frees up your hands, and is great for shining into peoples eyes accidently.

Carry a notebook/small laptop/ipad with downloaded boiler manuals on. Useful for when the MI aren't with the boiler and you need parts numbers, or HI figires etc. I also carry a Pay as you go broad band dongle for if I ever require broadband via the laptop while I'm out. Doesn't often get used but useful when ordering unusual items on the go.

If you over pull a bend slightly, you can turn it over, lock it in your benders, and tweak it by hand in the oposite direction. (please note this is for tiny adjustments, anything over a 2mm or so will stress or kink the pipe).

If you have assembled a complicated dry run of waste pipes and want to maintain the correct angles when you are gluing it together. Put a line through the pipe, and fitting, so when you start reassembling with glue, you can twist the elbows to the exact same point that you had them in previously. You could also number them if you needed to (just thought of that, never had to myself!)

If you need to clip an existing pipe (fitted by another plumber) but there is no way to move it to drill the hole behind the pipe. Clip two talon pipe clips together and drill/screw the pipe clip above or below the pipe. Slot the two clips together and your pipe is now clipped.

Wash your hands before you go to the loo, if you think you may have flux on them!!

 

[tamz]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Everflux makes me itch just looking at it but 25 years ago i liked it. I'm a Laco man myself and some say it nips but i can honestly say i never notice it. Probably used to it!

Look up the data sheets on different fluxes. It may surprise you how bad some are.

 

[dontknowitall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Learned one today - how to release an air lock in a sealed heating system.

Close lockshield and open trv. Put down towel under trv and grab a container for catching water. Crack open nut joining trv to radiator. Release about 1/2 litre of water. Close nut. Close down trv.

Open lockshield. Put down towel under lockshield and grab a container for catching water. Crack open nut joining lockshield to radiator. Release about 1/2 litre of water. Close nut. Open trv.

During one of the above the air shifts as a decent quantity of water is being shifted in one go and escapes. Apparently it doesn't always work using the bleed nipple as not enough water is moving to push the air along.

Great trick for me for another time.

Heating pump has to be running while doing this.

 

[tweakyboy]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I'm liking Tom's top tip in this one! toms top tips the multimeter one - YouTube

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

More than one tube! or wrap it in string or something because otherwise it just keeps expanding until guess what.

Wind it AROUND the pipe first, slightly overlapping it and follow it with a tie wrap and finish with a fully tightened tie wrap at each end. Easier just to slap a valve on it live as it's leaking anyway.

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Stock up now with pipe insulation as the price will go up to meet demand as the temperatures plummet. Last year many places had sold out very quickly.

 

[Resolute]

Until you do it second job at half nine and then get soaked when its freezing outside

Always keep a spare top on the van!

 

[Best]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When putting a valve on a live pipe, leave the valve open and attach a hose to other side of valve if you have to or if it is indoors. That way the water flows through the valve as you push it on, so no pressure against you. Best way with high pressure water mains.

 

[AmritPedersen]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I might get some of that Just For Copper glue stuff. It is actually WRAS approved. Might be useful for places difficult to solder, or where there's water in pipe or where you want the pipework to look ultra-neat.

Was on a boiler manufacturer's jolly to Germany along with some tech chaps from Brighton University. They looked at this glue & ran some tests on it. It didn't pass muster for them, so I'm not using it.

 

[AmritPedersen]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

good tip but I have always used the small tube from my u gauge to shove down pipe and syphon water out

:vanish:

The U-gauge tube is good for syphoning out some fluid from a towel rail when you want to add chemicals (ie sludge remover)