[WORKLOG] Rocket Science: Creating fittings for Aussie copper pipe (8/8 Black plated out soon)

Possibly by a few cents - knurling doesnt add a lot of cost to be honest. It's the first thing they do in the manufacturing process - starting with long lengths of brass roundbar they knurl the entire thing before it gets cut into individual fittings to be machined.

I think they're a cool idea though, so I'll see how my real life version looks and go from there. Need to get the word out about these fittings first before I jump into spending more money

 

Matt,
These look fantastic in real life! Damn impressive work, now we can all use 1/2" tubing....

You're a star, Mate

Cheers,
Beano

 

How would you tighten the non-knurled ones without busting the surface? Maybe a mini oil-filter wrench like thing?

 

Fingers. I always use them.

 

You could stick a small offcut of pipe into the fitting and use that to tighten it?

Steady on old man, no one asked how you wipe your bum.

 

Reading skills come in handy

 

I'd love to give this copper pipe idea a crack. Just not sure how long I'd spend doing it. To be honest I've got 10 odd meters of left over half inch copper pipe in the shed.. not sure If i could handle the downtime of the PC.

Saate, How secure do the pipes sit in the fittings? I'd imagine that with the .1mm clearance there would be small wobble of the pipes once finished and in place. Any chance of a pipe dislodging with heat? expansion/contraction? although since copper conducts more heat it probably expands sooner than brass or other metals.

I did once think of doing this , however I only have access to conventional lathes with massive chucks so the production would only be worthwhile for a once off job...

 

Very very secure! I really need to do a video or something on this to help demonstrate how secure the fit is. The internal o-rings are getting compressed a fair bit so if you tried to pull the pipe out without twisting it'd be very difficult. I'd suggest a small child wouldn't be able to remove it at all (maybe thats what I can do the video of!).

There's a few of the guys from OCAU that have fittings in hand now so I might see if they can explain it better than I can - but yeah, secure is what I'm getting at!

 

You should use a bidet too - free up the fingers for other things, like tightening fittings

@Saate: yep, have to agree, the tubing is very well secured, there will be no risk with standard water pumps and associated pressures.

 

wonderfull. This could be a fun project one day.

 

just purchased 8 so i can't my stainless tube build

 

Awesome thanks mate - getting ready for the wedding tomorrow but I'll make sure I get these out to you today

 

Hey Matt,
Would you by any chance still have a set of 12 available? I will order these later tonight if yes, let me know!

Need them for a build, cheers Mate

super quality on those I got off you a week back, thanx again! Much obliged!

Cheers,
Beano

 

Well congratulations are in order I guess. I figure that tomorrow might almost be as great a day as when you finished your build.

When you get done with everything else, what are the chances of getting black fittings, as there only seem to be nickel plated on the website.

 

Congratulations buddy. My wedding day was the best day of my life, and I'm sure yours will be too!

 

No probs - I've been keeping stock levels up to date in the cart so there's plenty there. I've got another 500 fittings finished and in country so absolutely no worries. Just put the order through and I'll sneak them into the post before the ceremony

Thanks mate Black fittings are next on the list, we had some problems with the test batch of black plating so they'll be a little while coming yet. Probably at the same time as I do a short run of the 'stealth' fittings.

Thanks mate! Trying not to hype it up too much in my head and I think it's supposed to rain, but not going to let anything stop me enjoying the day!

 

Cheers Matty,
Appreciated Mate

Beano

 

cheers for the putting in the hard yards before the weeding saate


but mmm.....shiny stainless (and only after 1 quick rub with the autosol) can't wait for the fittings to get here.



Click to view full size!


Click to view full size!

 

That looks awesome Hava

 

Alright! I'm all married up and all that wedding nonsense is out of the way, so time to get back into the swing of things Hope you guys are well! We had a great wedding and a short honeymoon, we're planning on a longer trip overseas late this year though to do it right.

After nearly five years in my current job also found out I'm being made redundant which is unfortunate, but all in all a good opportunity to move on and find something new. Hopefully I'll tarzan-swing into a new job without too much fuss and won't be that distracted from the more important things in life like modding

I had some time yesterday to play with some setups to help demonstrate how secure push-in fittings are to people who havent played with them. I see a lot of posts in forums from people saying they wouldn't trust push-in fittings because of too much potential for the pipe to be pushed or fall out.

So I took some of the primochill rigid tubing, drilled a hole in one end and threaded a cord through to begin taking some photos. Here's what my little tester looks like, the block it's attached to is just to help me hold it:






Before you scroll down - for the sake of fun, have a think about how much weight you think should be enough to pull the tube free of the fitting.







I wanted to test using common items at hand that people would be familiar enough with to relate to. So looking around I started with the Brayway standard, a 700ml bottle of Pump water



No worries at all with the pump bottle, didnt budge! What next? I looked around and found a 2 litre bottle of demineralised water:



Obviously a lot heavier at nearly three times the weight of the pump bottle, I wasnt too sure it would hold but:



It got a bit too heavy to hold onto so used the fence to take the weight:



The pipe didnt budge at all which is really a testament to how well the friction created by double o-rings works to hold the pipe in there. To get the pipe out without exerting yourself you need to twist it out, I'm sure someone else can explain the physics more eloquently than that though.

I'm going bowling tonight and brought it with me, if I can attach the cord to a bowling ball and get it to stay I'll test it out. I've got a feeling the pipe will break before the fitting releases the pipe though, but we'll see!

Hope you guys have been well, as always am keen to hear any thoughts/comments/suggestions so fire away!