"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message news
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
news
"Gerry" wrote in message
...


Ha! LOL. I know about plumbing nightmares. Try getting what you need
from Home Depot to do an emergency repair on the weekend. The will gladly
sell you nine over priced fittings to do the job of one reasonably priced
fitting you could buy elsewhere. A lot of times I get frustrated and just
make what I need out of aluminum or brass.

I've collected pretty much at least one of each common fitting, the
smaller ones in brass and the larger in black iron. When I use one I
put it on the shopping list to replace. Many are marked with their
nominal size to help identifying threads.

The machined brass ones generally run true enough in the lathe to hold
other pipe or fittings for modifying, using either light cuts or the
support of a tailstock pipe center. The narrow hex doesn't provide
much support, even in a 6-jaw.

A large enough True Value hardware store may carry a significantly
better selection than HD.
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A tiny little country True Value store may have a better selection than Home
Depot. We had a True Value (my dad) called BJ-Supply Co when I was growing
up. Right next door to our grocery and general store. El Camino Market.
You could buy jeans, shirts, a washing machine, most any pluming fitting,
and a new starter for your truck without moving your vehicle. When I moved
into town it used to drive me bonkers having to drive all over town to get
six parts for a job and have to check nine stores to get them, when I knew
we had all of them on the shelf at the hardware store back home. Those
stores are closed now, but they served the community for several decades.