making my own towel rad?

I need a narrow (30 cm) central heating towel rad. A spring type would be good but a little pricey. Can I make my own?

I have a pipe bender.

  1. Is chromed 15 mm (can you get this in 22 mm or larger?) piping in the Screfix catalogue suitable for bending, or will the chrome flake?

  1. If I did make one, how does one attach the connections to the pipe for the rad valves and a bleed plug?

Thank you, Neil

Reply to
Niel A. Farrow
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Which is OK for 90 deg or even 180deg in one flat plane. How you would put the bend in the second axis is beyond me.

Chrome plating after fabrication would be more usual.

You can buy a corner mounting towel rail, £265 for a short one or £345 for a tall one. It's just like the regular ones except curved 90deg so it fits into a 350mm corner.

Reply to
Toby

You can buy 22mm chrome plated copper. A 3 metre length is £11.66 + VAT Use chrome plated compression fittings. A 22mm tee is £1.65. Use bends for the corners and tees for the cross rails. Use chrome plated clips, single ring with backplates. Use a chrome effect Thermostatic radiator valve. Make sure it is securely clipped. All from

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Reply to
IMM

Neil,

When I installed the heating in my current house (three floors 7 bedrooms) about 18 years ago I needed six towel rails and at the time frankly I couldn't afford the price they commanded, so I made my own using 22mm end feed solder fittings and painted them white. The only 'custom' fitting was to take a 1/2" bsp standard radiator lock shield valve spigot at the in and out connections, and these I made by turning down a standard 1/2" bsp male / female brass fitting on the lathe to let the male enter the socket of a 'Tee'.

Painted white they infact look fine, I had intended to replace them with chrome ones as finances permitted, but now see no need whatsoever.

It is probable that having a home made towel rail chromed by a local plating firm would be a viable option as the copper base is excellent for plating.

Andrew Mawson

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I've bent 15mm Chromed copper pipe (from B&Q, not Screwfix, but I expect it's much of a muchness) and I recall I was pleased that it didn't noticeably flake.

I doubt you could bend a spring design without very fancy kit: a neat 180 degrees, by bending from each direction, is pretty good going (for me: YMMV). So you could do a ladder of 90 or 180 degree sections (joined with chromed compression fittings).

Rad valves have (or some of them do) 1/2" BSP/15mm compression fitting ends both ends, so would go straight onto 15mm tube. Dunno what you'd do for a bleed valve, but it only has to be something that can be loosened enough to let air out then tightened up again.

-- John Stumbles

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Reply to
John Stumbles

John,

For the bleed valve, use a 22mm end feed Tee that reduces in the going direction to 15mm. In the towel rail have the two 22mm ends form the right angle at the top and sweat a standard 15mm bleed valve into the upstanding

15mm.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

Just a thought, but might it be easier and neater to make the whole lot up in standard soldered copper, clean up all the joints to display quality, and have it chrome plated at the end of the process?

Unfortunateky I have no idea how much platers charge...

cheers Richard

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

Reply to
RichardS

Copper with a suitable finish looks beautiful, miles better than chrome. Do Get proper advice on how to finish it though, as the wrong finish will fail to stop it dulling and discolouring.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

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