Piping correction 1 inch copper sweat

robert borders

Hope this picture comes thru so you can see what I am asking for help on. This boiler was set by another person and the R in the back bottom comes off at a weird angle. I would have compensated some because I would have oriented it so that 2 45's brought it back square with the world. Having been a hvac guy for 40 yrs + not a plumber, I don't know if you can get copper fittings one inch that are different angles that 45 degrees? 2ndly is there a way to measure the angle + do you use a protractor? I was thinking of getting some one inch hot and bending it to get the right angle. how would you approach it. Certainly want the owner to think he hired a professional + not to think that he should do this himself because he could do better than me whom can not get it straight for the moment. will try to preview this to see if my photo went thru, if not will try it again. really should be sawing off logs right now. thanks bob borders mar 19 2014

robert borders

Trying to get a picture posted to my own thread for clarification

Trying to drag a pic so you can see clearly what I am asking for help on.



bob b

Tinman

In my humble opinion

It's not the angle that makes it look unprofessional, it's the number of unnecessary fittings. I would re-pipe it without the coupling, the street 45, the regular 45, and all the reducers.

Eric_32

When you

When you have an odd angle and you want to get back straight, you have to make a swing joint using 2- 90°. It can be done with tees as well.



The first is positioned either: 12,3,6, or 9 o'clock, the 2nd 90° will get you straight. I agree about all the fittings there.



You can also do a heat bend if it's off by a little.

heatpro02920

WOW

That has to be $35 of fittings...



Can we get a better picture of where the piping is going?

jonny88

swing joint

as previous poster said double elbow swing will straighten you out.You could also try a brass tee .On the bull of the tee go to where you need and leave a drain cock on the run.You got options but I would cut that pipe out and re-do it some other way.

robert borders

now that it is morning and i am going to another community

Thank you for the input. 2 wholesalers in our town of 10K + no one has much in 1 inch fittings (u should try 1 1/2???)

Anyway, looks like a pre apprentice did this or a land lords not so good but cheap handman. he likes the price but don't care what it looks like.

will take the advice of the brass tee with the boiler cock and the 90's, then get some fritting reducers of the exact size needed w/o making a train of fittings. I used to tear out sheet metal guys (inexperience ones) install right in front of them to do it so it looks professional.

This makes me sick this morn to look at my own work. BTW, I unsoldered the connection last nite to the boiler so the owner would not walk in and see it. YUK

Thanks Bob B

icesailor

Swing Joints:

That's not a swing joint. Its an expensive off-set.

Any well stocked supply house (Home Depot and Lowes are not well stocked supply houses although some think that they are) will have the proper adapter fittings. I can hear my late, old dead former boss to this day. His rant about excessive fittings costing him money. You never, ever used a Street fitting unless you had a really good reason to use it. And there weren't a lot of good reasons.

The way you find the length with 45's is (the complicated method), the Square Root of 2. or 1.414. 1X1=1, 1x1=1, 1+1=2, the Square Root (a number, multiplied by itself will equal the first number), 1.414. X 1.414= 1.999396 or 2.

OR,, take the distance you want to offset and multiply it by 1.414. It will give you the centerline measurement of the 45* offset. It doesn't matter what plane you are measuring.

Say that you are running a pipe parallel to a wall on a floor or ceiling and you want to offset to connect another pipe coming from above. measure to the wall on both pipes. After subtracting the distance from the wall, and you have measured through the centerline of both pipes, multiply that number by 1.414. Say that the measurement is 10' or 120" (inches). Multiply 120" X 1.414 + 169.68 or 169 5/8 inches. That's through the centerline of the fitting. Subtract the distance of the centerline of the "make-in" for the pipe (say with 1" copper tube, it is 5/8" for each fitting. That's 1 1/4". Subtract 1 1/4" from the 169 5/8", and cut the pipe 168 1/8" or 168", close enough. With copper, there is swing. With screw pipe, there isn't.

In closing, don't ever forget that number 1.414 or shortened to 1.41, Put it in your wallet. Your cell phone has a calculator. Use it. Store the number as a "contact" in your phone. It is the best friend you will ever have. You can "square" anything by taking the short side of something, X 1.414 and measuring out the longer side. Where the answer falls, will be square. A 45* is half a 90*. 1,414 is the long side of a Right (90*) triangle, 1 X 1. One of anything. Using a Inch/Metric rule is easier because it then is like counting money. Ten finger, ten toes, there's 100 pennies in a dollar, 100 dollar bills in a hundred dollars. Ten millimeters (little bitty marks) in a Centimeter. :Cent" for a penny, and ten centimeters in a meter. Who cares how long it is, its on the rule. You don't have to cloud your brain with all those fractions, 13/16, 3/8, 5/16. All those little bitty marks. There's only 5 little bitty marls between the two numbers and the bigger little bitty nark between the number. As long as I have my glasses on, I can tell about how many little bitty marks there are between the big one in the middle. I only have five fingers on one hand. Its just like counting money.

My math may be off. It isn't my strong suit. The theory is when I can remember it.

I got to go do something constructive. Like grout the brick tile I made for my patio out of 12" X 12" slate tile. I squared up the old concrete patio by using 1.414 to lay it out so that everything fits. I tiled 1100 Sq Ft of porcelain tile, 12" X 12" in our Condo with no joints of cut tiles through doorways into rooms without cut joints. The full tile I started with in one corner, followed throughout the floor. With 1.414. The most important number anyone that uses a rule to measure can know.