P
Plouasne
From the look of what's on the forum board, there does not seem to be too much in the way of big plumbing works being posted, I might have been lucky and been in the right place/time/etc, and been on some large works over my time on the tools, now in later years when I have the time to sit and tap a key board, I thought that its time to pass on what knowledge I might have picked up, it will be the in no particular order just when I remember such things
Acetylene, or rather carbide:
Don't be lazy and use carbide to test the drains
1 of 2 things happen, both virtually guaranteed to go with a bang and wreck the job
Firm I did my time with, a couple of plumbers repeated what they had done, some time either during or just after the war, in London they were working on a 4" lead soil stack with lead wastes, come the day for the test, every thing was capped off, basin traps had plugs screwed into the deep nuts, one of the plumbers said I can smell acetylene "think that I've found it" he light a match, and said "its a cracked wiped joint see the flame" with that the needle flame burnt back into the gas in the stack, the result was just about the first drain plug as a satellite, a 6" lead soil stack with 4" wiped joints, the lead "P" traps turned into a straight piece of pipe
Think that this was a Matty Hall job "Stag Brewery" Victoria London, told by an apprentice at the time who was on the site; 16 story C/I soil stack, with W/C branches on each floor, all plugged off and ready for the test, a good handful of carbide dropped down the stack followed by a bucket of water, drain plug with a spring loaded safety valve placed in the open end, during tea break the stack explodes, all the branches sheared off, and the top most two lengths vanished into space
Fiddling Gits
A job I inherited was a wee bit nasty, both the standard of work, and the clerk of works, this clerk, or rather, cow refused to pass a soil stack without all appliances being in place, and then wanted to see at least 4" water gauge, no way of explaining that the W/C only had a 2" trap seal and that the other traps were a 3" seal, 4" water gauge or fail was his answer; right 4" you want and 4" you will get
, lucky for me the pvc stack had an rodding eye just below the screw on boss for the kitchen sink, got the drain bag and stuffed it up the stack making sure that it covered the boss for the sink waste, plugged off the top of the stack with the cow watching me, then ran some water into the bath, basin, sink, flushed the W/C, then passing the tube for the manometer, just around the bottom of the W/C trap, gave the tube a little puff the put it on the gauge, the old cow looked at it said OK, I breathed a sigh of relief, 'cos I knew that the stack was dodgy to say the least
Thrust blocks
These are not sexual aids, but form an important part in the design of pipe lines, water mains etc; Job I was on for TW, at Enfield, 12" cast iron "Tyton" rubber ring joints emergency fire main, in a ring around the factory, with branches, I arrived at the last stages of the job, most of the roads had been reinstated and all that was really left to do was tidy off the last few bits and do a test on the ring main, 200psi for half an hour, get the diesel pump running, filling the main with water from the river Lea, OK its full of water, Now for the test connect up the force pump, keep pumping away, gauge going up 150, 165, 170, 175, 150, 0,, OK there's a leak some where and its a big 'un, right think that we have found it, it was a 12" "Tee", with a blanked off flanged spigot that was leaking, whacked up the nuts on the blanking plate, try again, same difference 0 to 0 psi, this time the spigot on the branch had moved, jack it back into the joint, (this stuff is decidedly heavy at 1cwt a foot run), try yet again, same again this time the spigot has pushed out and also pushed over the brick wall to the pit it is in, steel road crossing plate, in place, ratchet cable drum jacks braced against the spigot and steel plate, ground around has been compacted hard, so should be no problem this time
By this time the designer had been pried out of his office, the engineer in charge was there, so once again try the test, up past 175, 180, this is getting harder to pump now, 185, 190, 0, I hear the designer and engineer saying that they didn't know why the test keeps on failing, I in all innocence, asked "what about thrust blocks", both designer and engineer asked "Thrust blocks what are they ??, I explained that a pipe line generates forces in the line and at a change of direction, branch, etc, this force has to be restrained either by concrete blocks, steel, etc , and it needs to be properly designed for the pipeline, the pressure inside the pipeline, and the forces generated by the change of direction of the fluid inside the pipeline
Oh I never knew that from the designer, nor me from the engineer
Result: Factory two weeks late in reopening, the ring main had to be re-exposed, re-fitted where it had "sprung" the joints, concrete thrust blocks cast at each change of direction, around the pipe
(University education, but no hands on experience, 0 - University of life on the tools 1)
Acetylene, or rather carbide:
Don't be lazy and use carbide to test the drains
1 of 2 things happen, both virtually guaranteed to go with a bang and wreck the job
Firm I did my time with, a couple of plumbers repeated what they had done, some time either during or just after the war, in London they were working on a 4" lead soil stack with lead wastes, come the day for the test, every thing was capped off, basin traps had plugs screwed into the deep nuts, one of the plumbers said I can smell acetylene "think that I've found it" he light a match, and said "its a cracked wiped joint see the flame" with that the needle flame burnt back into the gas in the stack, the result was just about the first drain plug as a satellite, a 6" lead soil stack with 4" wiped joints, the lead "P" traps turned into a straight piece of pipe
Think that this was a Matty Hall job "Stag Brewery" Victoria London, told by an apprentice at the time who was on the site; 16 story C/I soil stack, with W/C branches on each floor, all plugged off and ready for the test, a good handful of carbide dropped down the stack followed by a bucket of water, drain plug with a spring loaded safety valve placed in the open end, during tea break the stack explodes, all the branches sheared off, and the top most two lengths vanished into space
Fiddling Gits
A job I inherited was a wee bit nasty, both the standard of work, and the clerk of works, this clerk, or rather, cow refused to pass a soil stack without all appliances being in place, and then wanted to see at least 4" water gauge, no way of explaining that the W/C only had a 2" trap seal and that the other traps were a 3" seal, 4" water gauge or fail was his answer; right 4" you want and 4" you will get
, lucky for me the pvc stack had an rodding eye just below the screw on boss for the kitchen sink, got the drain bag and stuffed it up the stack making sure that it covered the boss for the sink waste, plugged off the top of the stack with the cow watching me, then ran some water into the bath, basin, sink, flushed the W/C, then passing the tube for the manometer, just around the bottom of the W/C trap, gave the tube a little puff the put it on the gauge, the old cow looked at it said OK, I breathed a sigh of relief, 'cos I knew that the stack was dodgy to say the leastThrust blocks
These are not sexual aids, but form an important part in the design of pipe lines, water mains etc; Job I was on for TW, at Enfield, 12" cast iron "Tyton" rubber ring joints emergency fire main, in a ring around the factory, with branches, I arrived at the last stages of the job, most of the roads had been reinstated and all that was really left to do was tidy off the last few bits and do a test on the ring main, 200psi for half an hour, get the diesel pump running, filling the main with water from the river Lea, OK its full of water, Now for the test connect up the force pump, keep pumping away, gauge going up 150, 165, 170, 175, 150, 0,, OK there's a leak some where and its a big 'un, right think that we have found it, it was a 12" "Tee", with a blanked off flanged spigot that was leaking, whacked up the nuts on the blanking plate, try again, same difference 0 to 0 psi, this time the spigot on the branch had moved, jack it back into the joint, (this stuff is decidedly heavy at 1cwt a foot run), try yet again, same again this time the spigot has pushed out and also pushed over the brick wall to the pit it is in, steel road crossing plate, in place, ratchet cable drum jacks braced against the spigot and steel plate, ground around has been compacted hard, so should be no problem this time
By this time the designer had been pried out of his office, the engineer in charge was there, so once again try the test, up past 175, 180, this is getting harder to pump now, 185, 190, 0, I hear the designer and engineer saying that they didn't know why the test keeps on failing, I in all innocence, asked "what about thrust blocks", both designer and engineer asked "Thrust blocks what are they ??, I explained that a pipe line generates forces in the line and at a change of direction, branch, etc, this force has to be restrained either by concrete blocks, steel, etc , and it needs to be properly designed for the pipeline, the pressure inside the pipeline, and the forces generated by the change of direction of the fluid inside the pipeline
Oh I never knew that from the designer, nor me from the engineer
Result: Factory two weeks late in reopening, the ring main had to be re-exposed, re-fitted where it had "sprung" the joints, concrete thrust blocks cast at each change of direction, around the pipe
(University education, but no hands on experience, 0 - University of life on the tools 1)
