DIY Plumber

[gus]

Not every plumber is a machinist and not every machinist a good plumber or competent electrician.
Flash heater in the bathroom broke down, checked power supply----OK.

Bought replacement heater. Copper pipe had to replaced.Found a length in the scrap bin but short of one olive sleeve(compression fitting) to connect .On Sunday all plumbing shops are closed.
No sweat. Machine the olive sleeve.Done. See foto.

 

[gus]

Bought Made in UK Flash Heater. Made in UK stuff should be reliable. Turned on power supply. Turn water supply
and heater did not light up. Was it really Made in UK and not made in China??

 

[gus]

Bought Made in UK Flash Heater. Made in UK stuff should be reliable. Turned on power supply. Turn water supply
and heater did not light up. Was it really Made in UK and not made in China??

Back track reconfirm power supply from WW II power outlet. Found bad in coming cable connection,grub screws loose and cable connection to heater corroded. Rectify. Me "boss" had her hot water bath.
Latest finding existing heater was OK. Now I have one spare heater.

Q.E.D. Homemodelenginemachinist can be DIY plumber and electrician.
Saved S$150 doing DIY plumbing but squandered S$210 buying new heater.

Sincere word of thanks to "Cogsy" on how to put in new threads.
Hi Cogsy.IOU a beer.

Gus

 

[goldstar31]

You've got to stop this malarkey about our Oriental friends. I pop into the local 'El Cheapo' Kraut Cuckoo Clock supermarket and get THREE years unconditional warranty from them.

Now getting my old Union Jack out and singing 'Rule Britannia' and I get a whole year out of me own lot- and then have to struggle and fling Sales of Goods Act lectures which have been around since 1893-- and get a near heart attack.

Just having a bit of a rant. That should put me in good stead for about 14 courses in Chinatown.

Norman

 

[Herbiev]

Hi gus. Is that olive aluminum ? In Oz we use teflon or some sort of polymer. Just wondering about the reaction between copper pipe and Al.

 

[gus]

Hi gus. Is that olive aluminum ? In Oz we use teflon or some sort of polymer. Just wondering about the reaction between copper pipe and Al.

You may be right. After putting it in ,I had afterthoughts. My scrap bin had no other offer. I put teflon tape and Loctite sealant for insurance. Trust this will last for 5----10 years.

Here in Singapore, Cheapy Chinese goods are imported as some people or most local would not pay for better quality Chinese appliances.I make a point to buy Japanses Branded appliances even if it is made in China.I bought Chinese hand tools in at "Tokyo Hands",Tokyo,Japan.Quality was very good and comparable with Japanese made."Made in Japan" in the early 50s were bad but they came up tops from the late 50s.

My Chinese Boss came to Singapore to buy "Made in Singapore" Morphy Richards Electric Irons which is so many times more than the Chinese made.His explanation was they don't last as good as imported irons.

Gus spent many years in China with manufacturing plants. Quality varies to suit markets.

 

[n4zou]

After years of use my 1/2" and 3/4" pipe dies became useless. When I went looking for replacements I got a bad case of sticker shock. These dies were the square, high grade commercial dies. Instead of replacing them I made a taper attachment for my lathe and cut tapered pipe threads on it. It's takes a little longer but what do I care. No one's paying me anyway! The advantage is the ability to turn a taper on the pipe before threading it. Lathe single point cut threads on a a matching taper turned cut look so much better than die cut threads. The only problem I ran into was cutting 11 1/2 TPI used on larger pipe and 2" conduit. My Lathe lead screw gear box does not have a position for cutting 11 1/2" threads. After doing a few calculations I found a combination of metric change gears that would allow cutting 11 1/2" threads. It actually cuts threads with that found combination at 11.489 threads per inch. That's close enough to work just fine for pipe threads.

 

[rdhem2]

You are a pretty sharp guy to figger all that out. Me, just too lazy and then unsure if I did!

What the devil is "OLIVE ALUMINUM"?

 

[goldstar31]

Hi gus. Is that olive aluminum ? In Oz we use teflon or some sort of polymer. Just wondering about the reaction between copper pipe and Al.

You've made a battery with aluminium and copper. Nice?

You mix iron and aluminium and you get a rather bright light. Very Xmassy- if you like that sort of thing.

Bird sh1t is best- but I was once described as a 'fine man in a political organisation'

Now where did I put the weed killer?:hDe:

 

[gus]

Sorry for the confusion.Its the pipe sleeve used in the compression fitting.The locals called "Olive Sleeve".
The scrap bin could only offer an alum hollow shaft.This Sunday afternoon and all plumbing shops closed.
Me " Boss" issued ultimatum" no hot shower---------no dinner. I got me dinner and "boss" happy.

See foto.

 

[gus]

Just came back from Osaka,Japan and it was cold for Gus.From 31 C in Singapore to 2 C in Osaka was no fun.
The Yakusa Gangster is all wrapped in winter clothing.See foto.

TokyuHands,Osaka Branch was a let-down.No as great as the Tokyo Outlets. Bought odds and ends .

The Mini Shower Tap Knob broke down after 3 years of faithful service.The Ball Valve Tap is still good.
Spent two hours to make replacement. New lever knob will last donkey years. The Makita Bandsaw was a very
useful asset to have. Lever was cut in 30 secs. with minimum to finish up.
See foto .My better half now very happy with new lever knob.
Yakusa Gangster is a very good machinist cum plumber from HMEM!!!!

 

[mwilkes]

Loving that ultra-modernist style, there... You'd sell that tap for bazillions in the right catalogue

 

[gus]

Loving that ultra-modernist style, there... You'd sell that tap for bazillions in the right catalogue

Thanks for the kind comments. There was no way,I could make 100% replica using cut-offs from Scrap Bin.:wall::wall: Turned out fine. Nellie likes the glitter which look like Gold.


Nice and hot but humid but fine sitting under a "Made in China" ceiling fan.:fan::fan:

 

[robcas631]

Gus, I think it looks better than the original!

 

[wongster]

Hello Gus,

You're from Singapore? Glad to have another Singaporean in the hobby. DIY community is rather small here. I just fixed up the flushing system in the toilet. When in without knowing what to look out for. But managed to fix it.

Regards,
Wong

 

[gus]

Hello Gus,

You're from Singapore? Glad to have another Singaporean in the hobby. DIY community is rather small here. I just fixed up the flushing system in the toilet. When in without knowing what to look out for. But managed to fix it.

Regards,
Wong

Hi Wong,

It is sad when we have so many Poly/ITE grads and very few homemachinist.
Fook Hoi Bldg has a small shop selling small lathes and tools. The lathes are good and not too pricy but the tooling is cut throat.I could buy locally or DHL from UK and USA for a song. A Rotary Table cost S$300---S$400.I make my own for S$50. Scribing block cost S$75. Made mine for S$5.00


Had no choice but to make a good looking and functioning knob. Removing the existing tap too troublesome. Small plumbing jobs are hard to get plumbers to drop and fix.The bill would make me faint. As most Singaporeans experienced,these tradesmen would leave behind a big mess for you to clean up plus the hand prints on the wall.

Happy New Year .

 

[wongster]

Hi Gus,

I'm in a totally different industry - banking. No formal or informal training in machining. Its a hobby to keep me out of vice

I bought my Sherline lathe and mill from that shop in Fook Hai Building. Sherline's accessories are not cheap but of good quality. The RT I bought is rather well made. As for the rest of the tools, I either ship them in from UK or US.

I had a leaking water heater (storage tank type). It started leaking right after the installation (I wasn't home). Called the shop to send the fella down. He didn't turn up. I gave up and fix the problem by applying some telfon tape. You are right about the mess they created.

Hope to see more of your work.

Blessed Lunar New Year.

Wong