Tricks of the trade?

When changing an angle steam radiator valve. I take a chisel to the union nut only and split it. Remove it and then pipe wrench out the spud. Much more reliable than those dumb spud wrenches.

When working on residential oil heat, every once in a while there is a small spill and after cleaning up the mess there is a lingering odor of unburnt fuel oil. Sometimes the homeowner will call even after several days of treating the problem with odor-gone spray and odor-gone powder.

Place Vinegar in a spray bottle and spray the source of the odor. Several times a day if necessary. The vinegar will neutralize the oil odor.

When you give this solution to the home owner, they can complete the application several times a day and eventually solve the issue without more time consuming service visits. That puts the homeowner in control and empowers them the solve the problem.

And to put the homeowner in a better frame of mind I finish off the service call with this line. "Vinegar will cut the oil odor and if you add a clove of garlic, your home will smell like a Cesar salad! Get it? Oil, vinegar & garlic." LOL.

To remove a stubborn nipple from a tank, put a solid steel rod, that just fits, into the nipple. Then the pipe wrench won't collapse the nipple, which often causes it to tear and leave the threads in the tank's port.

Yours, Larry

My water heater change out procedures (when I used to do them):

I would walk the tank, in the box, up and down stairs as needed.

Then cut the box in halves, not touching the tank. Lift the top box off and screw 2 nipples in the hubs.

Lay the tank down and pull it out of the box, without touching the floor to avoid scratches.

Stand the tank up with the nipples and walk it into place…..usually up on 4" blocks.

The 2 box halves then sit with the closed end up and I have my work bench for tools. And might use it for duct work, electrical etc sorting. Rather than every thing on the floor.

Later they become trash boxes for Sheetmetal scraps etc.

That was probably 3/4" soft K service line?

It was in the middle of the house after the meter after it had made several turns with fittings where it joined in where I assume the old well equipment had been in a section of presumably hard copper. I assume they used an electrician's hickey. Actually maybe it was in the now abandoned steel pipe now that I think about it more. I'll have to look at it again.

Good idea! I’ve found the ceramic coated one are troublesome to start. The uncoated construction screws start much easier.

-When fitting up copper piping and there's not a hanger right handy, I use my tape measure as an adjustable "leg" of sorts by setting it on the floor and bringing the pipe/fitting up to level, then locking the tape in place at that height. Just did it today, as a matter of fact.

-When taking apart piping without a low point drain or unknown pressure/volume, I like to find a sacrificial point in the piping or a fitting and run a self tapping screw from the top down through both walls. That way when your bucket is full or whatever you may need to step away for, you can run the screw back down through the bottom of the pipe/fitting and plug the hole again as needed. We all know the misery of taking apart a joint or cutting off a copper tube then taking an unwarranted shower in some less-than-desirable fluid because you can't shut it off.

-When you get purple primer on some things such as concrete, you can use clear primer to remove it. Same applies to permanent marker- just add more permanent marker and you can wipe it off.

-I also use Mad Dog's method of saving that upside down joint for last, but to add to that, there IS such a thing as too much flux. Just a thin layer to wet the surfaces of both the fitting and pipe, and that's enough. If it's dripping out when heating up, you have too much and it can create voids in the solder joint.

-Yet again with the copper, you can almost always just measure to the side of the pipe rather than the end of the cup and then adding the make-in when using 90* elbows or tees. Same with short radius PVC fittings.

-Black iron take-off is 1 pipe size smaller than you're using, for 2" and under. A 1" 90* for example, the take-off is 3/4".

Addition a couple of forceps to your tool kit. I have both straight and curved. They are great for getting into tight places that your fingers or needle nose pliers won’t fit. And their clamping ability is useful when you need to get a small screw or wire into a tight place.

Keep a selection of left twist drill bits. In stead of drilling in the conventional way and trying an easy out which only expands the nut or stud you're trying to remove often breaking in the process. Drill it out with a reverse twist drill and often times it will back the fastener out in the process. All other steps apply heat lube etc.

Over 40 years ago, my service manager built me this test gauge setup. Back then there were still many oil burners that used 1/4" high pressure lines. The new Carlin and Beckett burners were equipped with 3/16" high pressure lines.

When used properly, you never entered a home and pressed the reset button to get the burner started THEN had to justify charging a full price service call for less than 30 seconds of work.

By placing the test gauge on the high pressure line before resetting the primary control, you had a guarantee that there would be no flame. It also solved the "I only pressed the reset once" lie that the customers would tell you. No flame but you could see if there was fuel pressure to the nozzle, you could listed for a spark from the ignition transformer. Did the pressure jump to operating pressure (100 PSI) or did the gauge slowly get to the operating pressure indicating a different problem?

I liked the liquid filed gauge because it was durable and stayed calibrated longer in my tool pouch. In order to lessen the chance of loosing the flare cap, I would place the cap on the nozzle assembly. you could safely check the safety timing of the primary control under actual no flame condition with the cad cell eye properly connected to the control. There are many other observations that can happen with that gauge connected, like checking the actual oil pressure. Dah!

This is a trick I have used for over 40 years of servicing oil burners.

It is like the very end of a conduit bender. Someone with skill can make more complex bends with it.

Hi, Similar to @Intplm. 's trick with getting a screw to start in a tricky place, I use electrical tape. Today I had to put in some screws recessed on top of equipment. I poked the screw through the center of a piece of electrical tape and then held the screw onto the screwdriver with the tape. After the screw is started, pull off the tape and then finish tightening it. 😏

Yours, Larry

I'm trimming in the charge on five 80 ton 38AP units. They have a different charging chart for the circuits. It's liquid line temp vs liquid line pressure, so basically subcooling; but it's a curve, not a number. And it's offset by evaporating temperature. (Whew!) Anyway, I printed up the chart & laminated it, & I plot the numbers with a dry erase marker. That lets me reuse the chart & gives me a trend so I can watch as the charge approaches the sweet spot.

In spite of the size of these units, they're basically critically charged. They have microchannel condenser coils. Those may look like a radiator, but the tubes aren't actually flattened tubing like a radiator—they're an extrusion with IIRC five or six li'l holes though the center. Total charge in the coil itself can't be more than a few pounds out of the 100ish lb charge. You'll go from under charged to overcharged in literally one pound.