Bill and Alex's excellent drop header...

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Just pretty? I think it's kinda sexy...

Stonehouse_4

Or how to spend your holiday...

My Burnham V83 drowned this past summer (can't believe it's already passed) when we got 4' of water in the basement...

The good news is that we had full-replacement flood insurance, which we took out in February... Good timing...

I went with a V85 at the suggestion of Steamhead, whose EDR calculations showed the V83 as being too small (except when the "professional" tech over-fired it by about 25%!)...

The boiler arrived Thursday afternoon, and after some struggling we managed to slide it down the basement stairs... Delivery guys sure do have lots o'muscles!

The V83 had a 2" drop header with 24" risers. At Steamhead's suggestion I upped the header to 3". That made a simple swap out (of course, the front riser would need to swing back to the V83's riser position) next to impossible. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get the 3" fittings to space out the same as the 2".

I nearly dropped dead at the price of a 3" black Tee: $33!

So I stripped it all down and started from scratch. My neighbor Bill, taking pity on my teeny muscles came to help wrench, hold, tape and dope...

The risers are 24", the "arms" 10" and the drops about 8" with the fittings... I replaced the flanges with unions. Although I love the look of flanges, the seals ended up bonding with the metal and it took some hearty whacks with the sledge and chisel to break them apart.

I love the look of 45 deg. fittings, despite the extra work to fit them. However, it was just too complicated to keep them on the drops. I kept them for the mains though, but there were still fitting problems...

I think the old header was prettier, but hey, with the price of oil, I'll take efficiency over vanity...

Attached are photos of the original header, the new one, and one of the two unfortunate Woodcocks that I found in the V83's hood... How and why they got there, I can't figure out. What a horrible way to die though...

There's still a lot of work prior to firing, venting, feed water, electric and fuel. But I don't anticipate the same effort for those as for the header...

Thanks to all for the help and encouragement on this project...

JackEnnisMartin

DROP HEADERS

Hello , i am not in the habit of hurting other peoples feelings:but, I would suggest next time hire a professional. The header is not what we would call pretty. I would suggest drawing out what you are going to do sleep on it and then install it. If you want help; get one of the contractors listed by Dan on the web site . I am sure you will be pleased. However, do not give up ,keep trying, practice makes better.

All the best Jack Ennis Martin

DanHolohan

Well,

I think it's pretty. And I think Alex is brilliant. He's also a very good friend.

So there. ;-)

Steamhead (in transit)

Alex

check your e-mail.

"Steamhead"

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Rodney Summers

jack/Drop Header

Did you look at the second picture? That looks pretty good to me man.


Robert O'Connor/NJ

Paul Fredricks_3

The first picture does look kind of all over the place. Must just be the camera angle. The others look much better.

Ruthe Jubinville

Drop Header

I think it's pretty also and I think Alex is a good friend of a lot of the wetstock bunch. Jerry

Jeff Lawrence_25

Woodchucks?

Chuck Shaw ain't gonna be happy with you doing that to them poor critters. He wanted the fun for himself!

Al Corelli

I like it.

David Sutton_6

Not bad..Not bad at all!

How do the sholders feel??Them wrenches take there toll after the first few fittings huh..Very nice, Your steam will thank you with toasty rads !!

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Unknown

I like it too

And the most important thing ....... it'll work great .

The Wire Nut

Feelings....

Jack,

No hurt feelings here! You don't know me or my background so I can see where your insights may come from.

Although I'm a mere homeowner, I would modestly say my skills are at least intermediate. But every time I tackle a project my skill set grows. How many "professionals" do you know that have stopped learning, stopped growing and rely on "I've been doing this 30 years, (so it has to be the right way)"...???

May I suggest that you post some images of your headers? We all learn from the exchange of ideas.

Oh, and there are no "Find a Professional" contractors close to me, and thus I rely on the feedback from the folks here.

Ron Schroeder

Nice Looking Install

The one thing I would be concerned with is the Concentric Reducing Fitting before the header drop, change that out to a reducing 90 or Eccentric Fiittng and all should work well.

The Wire Nut

Chuckie Fricassee

Those poor critters were pretty solid when I pulled them out. I was shocked to see a second one sitting on top of the casting and directly under the first one. Whether they got toasted, drowned or just rigor mortis, I don't know...

But it couldn't have been pleasant for any of them...

How they navigated there way down the chimney, then make a sharp turn in to the vent pipe I'll never know....

Besides Chuck's too busy to toast birds....

The Wire Nut

Aw shucks...

Thanks so much for the kind words! I couldn't have done this without you all, and your encouragement. I'll keep y'all posted as the project progresses....

bob young

trap on header

the 3 "x 2" cplg. on the horizontal looks like a physical trap that just might result in serious water hammer.

Mark Hunt

Dead Timberdoodles


is a sign that your heating equipment was drafting.

In colder months, birds love to sit atop chimnies. Nice and warm there BUT also deadly for them. Carbon Monoxide makes them "sleepy" and they pass out. Some fall down the chimney others just fall off the roof. Once inside the chimnney, they may regain conciousness long enough to walk, flop and flutter their way into the heating appliance. The appliance cycles again and they die from CO poisoning and/or are cooked.

Now who says oil doesn't produce CO?

Mark H



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The Wire Nut

Bang Bang went the reducer...

Bob and Bruce,

Thanks for the catch on the reducer. Steamhead also pointed this out and, in retrospect, Doh! I'm going to see if I can find either the eccentric reducer or the reducing 90 at any of my supply houses...

Thanks!

The Wire Nut

Sagging shoulders and aching back...

We were mostly using aluminum wrenches but even those get tough after awhile. For breaking the old connections Bill had these old 48" steel Stilson wrenches. We generally used them while the pipes were on the floor, but even then, they get heavy fast...

It was amazing that even when pulling apart the old header, which is less than 2 years old, we often needed to put a piece of pipe on the end of the old Stilsons. And with that Bill, who is all muscle, had to strain to pop them. This is with them coated with Teflon and Rectoseal.

Thanks for the compliment too!

Alex

mtfallsmikey

Don't worry, bro!

I've seen some piping by some of the "Dead Men" that was pretty shabby. You did good for a HO! I wish more of the men that I hired and fired over the years could pipe something up that good!

Unknown

at least its not a

At least its not a Larry, Curley and Moe's pipings job... But at least, do that changover on the bushing to reducing el at the end of header...

Ken_40

Now that we live in VT,

We look at wild animals in a totally different manner.

Ever had possum/raccoon/badger/whatever jerky?

Mmmmm good!

clammy

not bad

That's not bad for a home owner i have seen plumbers and heating guys do much worse then that here's a pic of a drop header fix from last year or so ago . keep spinning that 48 it's good for you .The fix picture is alot better peace and good luck clammy

The Wire Nut

Practice...

Mikey,

Thanks! I do think my first effort, for the V83, was more workman like, but that was comparatively easy as it was only 2" and I had a power threader.

I wanted to do these drops to the header in 45s but it became too complicated trying to also line up with the feeds to the mains. Now that it's done (except for that cranky reducer at the end), maybe I'll see if I can change the drops using regular nipples...

Alex...