On Wed, 15 Aug 2018 12:56:57 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"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.

Ditto. When I need one, I get 3, trying to keep stock of anything I
might ever need. It's much cheaper to have one in stock than to have
to try to find one at midnight on a weekend.


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.

There's something new to me. Tailstock pipe center. Is it simply a
larger live center?


A large enough True Value hardware store may carry a significantly
better selection than HD.

HF has lots of small brass in many shapes, so I stocked up during a
recent sale. The local Grover Plumbing & Electric has the best
pricing and selection, so I stocked up on 3/8 and 1/4, finding some
1/8", too.

Hardware at Ace is usually quite pricy, but they have a large stock.
It's nothing like an old-style =real= hardware store, though. I miss
those!

--
America rose from abnormal origins. The nation didn't grow organ-
ically or gradually from indigenous tribes--like, say, the French
or the Poles--but emerged out of courageous, conscious acts of
will by Pilgrims and Patriots. --Michael Medved, Right Turns