Plumbing courses for beginners

What has that got to do with the price of eggs. How do you know that a flexible tap connector would have failed?

I have used a few over the years and have yet to have one fail.

In particular, "especially with the inlet to a soft plastic ball valve on a cistern", where the thread will be permanently minced if you get it wrong first time.

We had one of those when we moved in here. A month later it was our first Christmas and the family rush for toilet accomodation meant that it had to be fixed beforehand (and the service isolator valve turned back up to full flow). This was one of the worst cases I've ever had of sequential failures in plumbing - I'd replaced the siphon valve, the doughnut and coupling and was on my second fill valve and around the fourth flush handle before I had a stable non-leaking system that filled, flushed and didn't break when people used the handle as a climbing frame.

I use em whenever the tap is firmly screwed to something ad doesn't need the support, and the access is limited.

"It does not burn, but instead singes away from fire and extinguishes itself (Wool has a very high inflammation point of 560=B0C due to its high Nitrogen content of ~16%) Wool is self extinguishing because of its high Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI=3D25.2), which means to completely burn wool an oxygen content of 25.2% is necessary whereas air only has

OP only wants to move a sink IIRC?

Jim K

Fine if the taps are solidly mounted. On many SS sinks they aren't. A copper pipe to the tap helps enormously.

Yes indeed.

And have you smelled it while it's doing that?

Search out your local building trades college and compare prices. This is vastly more than my local one used to be, but it may be they are no longer subsidised like they used to be.

Watched my dad initially. Was quickly on to things like descaling ballcocks and even servicing the cast iron gas boiler (brushing off the soot, cleaning all the burner jets, etc. as a teenager. I can't recall for sure, but I think I did some basic plumbing too. For soldering, I was already compitent at electrical soldering (self taught), and transfering that skill to plumbing is not a big step. I recall firing up dad's parrafin blowlamp on several occasions for soldering, but I can't recall exactly what I was soldering with it.

Actually, one thing I recall - I made up a new exhaust pipe for the lawn mower with soldered copper pipe when the original one rusted into a pile a dust. Looked really good. About 30 seconds after starting the mower, all the soldered joints melted apart. Still, that's how you learn things...

Two courses I did because I wanted the skills myself and had no one to teach me were plastering and bricklaying. Each was 2 or 3 days, and well taught. I've also done electrical courses and got a couple of C&G, but in that case I already knew most of the material; it was a question of getting the certificate to make me happier about doing electrical work at work, and work paid for the courses (after which I designed and installed a computer room, amongst other things).

Treloar - excellent.

Never tried one - but that's what I'd heard too.

However I recently bought a Rothenberger SureFire2 blowtorch. Uses MAP- Pro gas rather the propane or butane.

If you're going to do more than a little bit of copper pipework, doing

had you before you were at the hippies?

shurely even posh hippies wouldn't mind a passing whiff of something exotic? especially if was up in a loft anyway?

Jim K

I wouldn't claim to know a fair bit of plumbing, but rather a bit. I got started when I essentially apprenticed for a family friend who replaced the old boiler in a previous house with a combi converting the whole house to mains pressure at the same time. That taught me the basics like soldering, checking for gas leaks, etc. From them I've just read up, both on usenet/forums and from books and got stuck in.

Pretty much everyone smells it singeing before they OK its use - otherwise the usual response is "we can't use that, it's not fireproof like rockwool!" As you point out, it singes and won't sustain burning, but no-one ever believes it until you torch a piece in front of them.

My soldering blanket is made of wool (fireproof Melton, from the Bristol fireman's jacket factory). It's less conductive than my Kevlar one, so there's less damage behind. The Kevlar one can get hot enough to scorch paint behind it. I tend to soak the wool one with a bit of water anyway, but the middle is pretty scorched now and no longer smells as much.

CHEATING!

(but I agree really. And definitely worth it in some cases, e.g. where you have to plumb in a kitchen sink or, especially, a bath away from the wall and then move it back into position because of access constraints)

:-)

You think that was bad, you should have seen his wiring ;-(

Owain

Ah yes, but the hippy house would have had proper organic wool, full of lanolin.....

Oh, I have the wiring too. 240V running to microswitches above cupboard doors as a lightswitch, with just a bit of shrinkwrap over the terminals. There's hardly an (exposed) junction box here that still had its lid in place.

Hence my total rewire...

Ah, those jeanie switches. Oh look, they're still available!