Cast Iron Fittings

Gordo

Cast iron fittings aren't what they've cracked up to be.



I used to believe as an article of faith that the Dead Men (peace be upon Them) used cast iron fittings on their steam system installs because they could be removed by cracking them off the pipes if and when repairs were needed.



I no longer believe this to be the case.



I had this epiphany the other day because I started thinking back to all the times I've broken off said cast iron fittings and finding in almost all cases the pipe had not been reamed.  The only time the pipe was reamed was when it was a "store-bought" nipple.



It started to strain my credulity that here was a guy supposedly thinking, "Gee, in four score and seven years, someone who I'll never meet  will need to repair this pipe.  I'll use cast iron fittings to help him out.  Yeah, that's the ticket".



 And yet he doesn't bother to ream the pipe? 



No, the Dead Men(p.b.u.T.), I posit, were most remarkably like us: Trying to feed their families and get the job in a low-bidder world.  Reaming the pipes would have cost time and money.



Cast iron fittings can crack as you make them up (and sometimes later - oh what fun that is!), are heavier, and the wrenches tend to slip off them.  But they had one advantage that trumped them all: They were much cheaper.



If malleable fittings were cheaper,  that's what They would have used.



Since these days, cast iron and malleable fittings have less of a price differential, and, in some cases, are more expensive,  there is less imperative to use them on steam, especially during these days of Teflon tape and Sawsalls.



This is my opinion, for what it's worth.



All of you, Be Safe!



-Gordon L. Schweizer

 

icesailor

Getting Reamed:

Gord,

Reaming pipe is a lost art. Done with a missing tool. My Ridgid #* reams up to 2". Back when the older dead men were still alive, I/we used to thread 1 1/4" and 2" Galvanized pipe for well pipe. The 2" was for "deep wells" where we used packers, an ejector on the end of a 1" galvanized pipe. If you didn't properly ream the 2" pipe, it would rip the two, 2" cup leathers off the ejector. After getting the whole thing together, and you went to fill the pipe to prime the system, if the leathers were ripped, the water would run out the pipe. Then, you had to dig up the whole mess. You learned to ream really well. The supply house I buy from has a Ridgid #400 power drive for customers to use. The reamer has a broken pin making the reamer useless. I own a #300 and all the stuff. If I need to thread a nipples, I bring my own stuff. Sharp dies, cutters, etc. I have a Ridgid OOR 1" to 2" threader that use so I can make crooked threads when needed. No one ever heard of a crooked, why you would want one and how to do it. One of the first things my old late boss taught me. That and making nipples with a home made nipple holder.



As far as the CI Vs. Malleable, My supplier only stocks Malleable fittings. But you can't use CI on gas, only Bl. Malleable. A lot of guys who wing up fittings, so tight, that it takes 2' wrenches to get them off, should screw a few CI fittings and deal with the cracking. But when you wind it in and decide that you need to go around one more time, and it is getting tighter and tighter, and it suddenly gets easier to turn, don't understand that they just wrecked the fitting.  

Charlie from wmass

I must say Gordo

one other thought I would like to add is that Steam was not the top of the line heat of it's day. Gravity Hot Water was, and had the price tag to go with it. The reason more steam exists as compared to hot water gravity systems is because more steam went in than Hot Water. Even as the low bid heat of these two systems it is still better than scorched air. Vapor Systems were made to copy gravity hot water but with smaller pipes and more complicated controls. If Vapor was the Cadillac, gravity hot water was the Rolls Royce.

Gordo

Dreaming of Reaming

I don't think I've ever met you in person.  But when I see properly reamed pipe, then I've "met" someone like you.



Because, as my old Drill Sargent like to say, what is not inspected, is neglected, YOU are the final inspector before that pipe goes together.  So what you do when you know no one will ever see that un-reamed pipe, but you ream it anyway because it's the right thing to do, then that says a lot about who you are, sir.



In regards to not reaming the well pipe and causing the leathers to break, I suppose that could be called "instant Karma".



A lot of the pre-cut nipples nowadays already comes with drunken thread...no extra charge!  Likewise with the fittings, too.



Cast iron..oh snap!

Gordo

Cheap One-Pipe Steam

Oh yes, the hot water guys and the one-pipe steam guys beat each other up to get the job.   You are right, one-pipe steam was cheaper than hot water.  Until a good hot water circl. came along, then one-pipe steam faded away. 

 

And darned few of  'em reamed their pipe. 



Even today, when I take apart soldered copper pipe,  that isn't reamed, either.



The scorched-error guys won, curse them.  And they are dancing on the Dead Men's graves to boot.



With respect, sir, my opinion is that Vapor just edged out gravity hot water in terms of comfort and efficiency during the coal era. 



Gravity hot water had it's share of patented, complex, expensive sometimes-mercury-filled devices, too.