Posted on 03/11/2023 4:52:41 PM PST by Rastus
duct tape
I have not worked in distribution for more than 10 years.
But I still talk to people who do their own plumbing repairs who cannot sweat a ridgid copper pipe. For the same reason I discovered I could not, reliably.
Thanks
Thank you.
I don’t get your point, a lot of people can’t do a lot of things.
There is a reason that late Saturday morning the calls start coming into the plumbing shops, it is because guys think they can do plumbing that they can’t.
I can tell you horror stories of people trying to do their own plumbing, from short-term problems to problems that are destined to show up years later.
America changed, and a lot of it for the worse when Home Depot started, suddenly everyone could do everything, house flipping became common, every guy with a pick-up and some tools was an unlicensed contractor, and everyone became instant tile installers, concrete men, plumbers, anything and everything, even house flipping husband and wife real estate teams, all of this also was mixed with the influx of illegals and the public’s view that these unkilled at anything peasants coming from dirt floors and tin roofs knew how to do American construction and remodeling.
When the local hardware store was small and family-owned I think the small amount of do-it-yourself stuff was very helpful and there were very handy guys who bought stuff there, but the creation of Home Depot and Lowes brought in the unskilled and not very bright millions and a world of amateur remodeling and repairs to America.
Even manufacturers were forced to respond to Home Depot and they started making junk for the cheap market who wouldn’t know the difference.
Lots of YouTube videos to make everything look easy.
Some things take time along with trial & error to learn to do properly.
I will say that Rastus seems to be doing everything right for a do-it-yourselfer, he is trying to fix things in a permanent manner and is looking for the best materials and taking his time to get things right.
When looking for help the small hardware store is usually the most helpful, one thing about Home Depot is they NEVER say I don’t know, they will ALWAYS give you an answer no matter how wrong or uninformed.
Thanks. I want to do this myself and it would have been a fairly straightforward operation if I could have just fit the nut onto the pipe. I will say my confidence is a little shaken for doing the two pipes under the sink. They look a little bent as well.
I’m thinking maybe I should cut the pipe much closer to the wall and if it still won’t fit, maybe a connector with a new, straight copper pipe?
Something that I don’t think anyone has mentioned is that angle stops are one of the most annoying things in routine service plumbing, it isn’t unusual at all for a plumber to have a simple job to do that he can get in and get out with but then the angle stop turns into a nightmare and ruins everything time-wise.
You can use your torch to desolder the old valve and then quickly hard rub/wipe the area with a dry rag (more than once if needed because the solder cools quickly, flux helps remove it also) to remove all of the old solder (some shine will remain), then try fitting your nut and sleeve onto the pipe.
You can also buy one of those shark-bite type things they keep talking about that will cap off the pipe temporarily, that way if you run into a problem you can always cap it off, and then come back to it the next day to finish putting on the valve that you prefer.
Did you ever get it done?
I saw a technique where you rotate a crescent wrench on a slightly out-of-round pipe, and that did allow the nut and valve to slide on easily. At hand tight, however, I could pull the two off the pipe. Is that normal? I didn’t trust it, so I slid on a BrassCraft push connector I had. That worked, no leaks. No one told me it would freely spin on the pipe, though Sharkbite says that’s normal of their version of the fitting. I guess it makes sense since there’s nothing to tighten, but I’ll probably revisit this later.
Hand tight doesn’t squeeze down the nut onto the compression ring so it isn’t unusual for it to be movable at hand tight.
Sharkbite
https://www.sharkbite.com/us/en
Yep, as easy as it gets. Just make sure you fully seat it on the pipe.
I was a little afraid I had “shrunk” the pipe too much with the crescent wrench, so I went with the push connector. Of course, it wouldn’t have worked either if there was a problem.
It is possible, but it sounds like you got things working.
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