On Aug 4, 10:58*am, wrote:
In previous projects I really haven't had the need to dry assemble a
bunch of fittings to get the alignment right and make sure it would
all work before gluing. * In the case of some recent work with 2" PVC
I had pipes making a tight 180 turn and together with a 3 way valve,
it all has to align just right with the existing piping in a short
distance with no wiggle room.

So, I put the pipes and fittings together dry first, to make sure they
aligned OK. * But there were two problems:

1 - It was very hard to get the dry pipe to bottom in the sockets of
the fittings

2 - It was even harder to then pull them apart.

I tried using some dish washing soap, but it didn't help much. * Which
got me to wondering if there are any tricks the pros use?

PVC pipe / fittings are not meant to completely dry fit to the same
depth as when doing the final glue up.

On the solvent glue cans, the instructions often note that dry fitting
should result in insertions 1/2 to 1/3 less than full depth.

The solvent action of the glue allows the pipe and the fitting to
"mush" together.

but back to your original question....

The fittings are not meant to be dry fit completely.
If you need to get things to fit up exactly correctly, sequence your
assembly and measure the socket depths.
Using primer & glue you should be able to get the pipes to completely
bottom.

Marking pipes & fittings so that desired orientation is maintained can
be helpful.

cheers
Bob