Aligning pipe fittings

[fred]

How do I ensure a plumbing fitting brass 'T' ends up in the correct orientation when fully tightened ?

Paul Mc Cann

[Tinkerer]

I can visualise several ways.

1) Insert all three connections at once and tighten. 2) Temporarily fit a short length of pipe in one of the cross bar sockets and use it as a handle to secure the body of the T while tightening. 3) Insert a piece of dowel right through the cross bar of the T and again use it as a handle. 4) Last, but least best, grip the top end in a mole wrench or similar although this method is more likely to cause distortion.

[Roger Mills]

Are you talking about a compression fitting, or an internally threaded fitting, requiring the ends of the pipes to be threaded?

[brass monkey]

This is an internal taper threaded T?

1 more turn or 1 less turn of ptfe tape?

[fred]

Thanks for your help.

I'm talking compression fittings. The horizontal bar of the Tee is vertical with the leg coming out horizontally. I want the leg to point in a particular direction but when I tighten it up it ends about 45 degrees out.

[DerbyBoy]

HI,

Thanks for your help.

I'm talking compression fittings. The horizontal bar of the Tee is vertical with the leg coming out horizontally. I want the leg to point in a particular direction but when I tighten it up it ends about 45 degrees out.

If the fittings are clean and new then you shouldn't be tightening them so much that things move like that. Are you being heavy handed?

[MuddyMike]

I know exactly what you are on about, I had that problem with the Ts on the bottom of towel rails that incorporate electric heating elements. It took me several attempts to get the damn things tight whilst pointing in the right direction. Can't help I am afraid, I just did it by trial and error.

Mike

[Roger Mills]

In that case, you fit the branch pipe first, and hold that so it points in the right direction while you do up the 'straight through' compression nuts.

[fred]

Roger,

many thanks for your help. Unfortunately the Tee is mounted in the body of a water pump. One leg in the pump housing, the opposite leg in the accumulator tank, and the third, troublesome, leg is to the outlets circuit. I was trying to align the pressurised outlet pipe with the incoming water supply pipe for neatness and convenience of siting the pump.

Gave up in the finish !

Paul Mc Cann

[The Medway Handyman]

Persistence & determination are omnipotent.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember fred saying something like:

You can often compensate for the movement to its finished position by starting the tightening process advanced at 45deg.