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Hi guys,
Im looking for a simple way to fit a piece of 2" sch 40 pipe into a reducer with the 2" remaining level. The reducer is a 24" down to 12" flanged on both ends sitting virtical on a rock dust pod. Its a special application for underground coal mine use. Im the welder in the shop and our pipe fitter of 37 years retired a month ago, so guess who gets thrown on all of the projects no one else can do. I bid on the job 9 months ago and was his partner the entire time but you cant learn 37 years of pipe fitting in 8 months when youve only been welding and fitting for a year. I had a good instructor in college but he wasnt that good. ha. If you could imagine the reducer sitting on a layout table with the large flange end facing down putting the small flange at the top the 2" pipe will exit horizontally. This may be to jumbled up to figure out but any help will be apreciated. The welding is not the problem. Its the fit up as I want to get it right. I could just knock a hole in it and bridge the gap with my welding skills but I want it to look good. Thanks for all your help in advance. Ill post some pics when I get finished with it if possible.
Hello Keith, if you can, you might consider tacking the lower contact end of a piece of 2" pipe to the reducer at the point that you would like to connect it, with this tack applied level and straighten this small section of pipe to correctly orient it to the reducer. Then saddle the piece of 2" with a small piece of angle iron and use this small piece to mark the outline of the point where the 2" would "penetrate" through the side of the reducer. You can use this small piece of angle to slide it back and forth and move it around the pipe to follow the contour of the reducer and correctly mark the outline of it. Once you've got it marked out, break off this piece, cut it out and proceed to tack and weld it in. I hope this makes some sense, pictures would certainly be better, I just don't have anything like that available right now to show what I am trying to convey. Good luck and best regards, Allan
Even though he is retired, you may want to give your former master a call. Some of them old boys appreciate being tapped for information. It feeds their ego and helps with the retirement boredom. A few years ago our head maintenance tech retired, but before leaving he told me to give him a call if I ran into anything I could not handle. I really did not like the thought of the company still benefitting from his experience for nothing, but he would not have had it any other way because he really enjoys solving difficult problems...........good luck
IMG_0369.JPG
here is a pic of what I'm working on. The threaded pipe hasn't come in yet
I would do it like Aevald is describing but I would use a piece of soapstone instead of the angle iron to transfer the line to the reducer. Please see the attached sketch.
Regards
JD
Hello JD, a great suggestion and definitely a shorter way around the field, so to speak. Best regards, Allan
Thanks for all the help. I dont know why I didnt think of that. lol. I tried to upload the pic with my iphone but its not showing up. maybe I can get it loaded from my pc.
[IMG_0369.JPG]
Im not sure if I done that right but thats a pic of what Ive done so far. Its been moved around the shop so much waiting on pipe to finish that the paint has almost been rubbed off. Yeah I said paint it was suppose to be final but its changed a million times in the last month. Its even changed since I first posted this, now they want two 2" pipe with valves across from each other and two 1" pipe opposite side across from each other. lol. " Smart" engineers have made this "dumb" welder a lot of money in my short career. I hope they keep it up for about 30 more years.lol
It doesn't seem like the main thing is to mark the reducer but to layout the saddle on the 2" pipe. Once that is done it is just a matter of putting it against the reducer and trace around it for the hole in the reducer.
As often there are several if not many ways to solve a little problem like this. Here is one way that should work in a practical easy way.
The outside diameter of 2" is 2 3/8. So mark a vertical centerline on the reducer where the 2" will hit and mark the top and bottom where the 2" will hit. The 2 3/8 will be plumb (straight up) not along the slope of the reducer. Or if you know the angle of the sides of the reducer you can just lay it out on paper or on your table. Now at the lower point of where the 2" hits the reducer hold a square held plumb (or a level held plumb), measure the distance from the top of where the 2" hits to the square. This is easy to do laid out on paper. With this measurement of the difference of where the top and bottom of the 2" hits the reducer, mark with a wrap a round on the 2" pipe two lines the same distance apart. This will mark the points of the throat of the saddle. With these two points and experience, one can just eyeball the cut and with maybe a little touch up from a grinder have a good fit. If you need to mark the legs of the saddle, hold the square horizontal at the vertical center and measure to the reducer at that point. This is all exactly the same as pipe handrails on a stairway, only easier because the legs will be very short. Quicker than it takes to read this, one could just cut this angle on a saw and fill the little gap that is left.
I hope I have made sense with this. Believe me it is easier to do than it is to read about how to do it or for me to explain it with typed words. Good luck.
Hollywood... that thing is a cluster f___
Best of luck.
If you have ever done any work for a coal mine, "Cluster" is usually just the start of your day. lol. The parts came in while I was off and someone else worked on it.
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