Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Righto, just a quick question...

Went into Fleece today, asked for a 100mm to 50mm copper reducer... attendant asks "welded?", I say, "no, soldered" (They're totally different things as far as I'm concerned!) . Nods and goes out the back. Returns with what looks to be right. I pay, and I'm on my way.

I get home, dry fit against my 50mm pipe, perfect. Try against my 100mm... no good. It looks like this fitting is designed to be butt fitted to the pipe, it's not a "socket" like every other part I've come across.

Is this right or are they just fucking with me (again, but that's another story :angry-banghead: )? Surely the fitting should lap with the pipe like a big capillary fitting? Is there another type of fitting that I'm thinking of??



Thanks in advance...

For 4" you will need couplers/joiners.
The joiners arent cheap either.
You can get some with the 2"slip fit. At top but 4" is pipe size.

You need to expand your pipe or go back and get what they call a joining ring and you will be fine .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

What about trying easy flanges??

Hmmmm, righto, thanks guys. I'll take the section of pipe with me tomorrow and test fit while I'm there. I'm prepared for the sigh and eye-roll from old mate when I walk through the door again. :clap:

The easy flange is down a little further, I've got a short length of 100mm pipe between the reducer and the flange - no reason for it I just thought it looked better with a bit of a longer neck. We'll see how the $$ go tomorrow before I change my mind...

Still... i had the same prob with my 3'' build...fucking running out of money...so the brain cut in.
You say you have some 4'' pipe left over (100mm?)... cut off a 2'' sleeve section.(try n make it square..pretty hard with a hack saw.)
cut out about 5mm of the wall,dont make too big a cut at first cos it will leave u with a gap to fill, so take a few bites at it till you get it in really tight. to make an inner sleeve...you will need to adjust this distance removed as i am only guessing what needs to come out as i have not done 4'', squeeze it together, now that the diameter is smaller and slide it INSIDE your main column. This is now an inner sealing connector..
Clean up the cut section neatly n file it up nicely...it will solder up perfectly, so you can slide your 4'' reducer OVER it and solder up.Connect both sections prior to soldering to give you a guide to know how much to leave poking out for the reducer to fully mate.
I did a few with 3''... works great.
Hope i explained it OK...
Ken.

I know exactly what you mean, thanks Ken. I was thinking about doing this before too. I'll see what kinda money they're talking tomorrow and go from there.

Good luck sl, there a pain in the ass how they make em different sizes!!. Kens idea works.good, but just be careful of the gap like he said, can be a nightmare, was for me anyway lol.

your prob looking at 20$ for connector. i went for a flange because it was cheaper than a connector. Ive done the internal slieve thing. just make sure it closes properly when it joins :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I noticed in the shop, asked the guy if it goes over (bought a 2"-1" that didnt go over 2" once) and he said they dont make them as 4" is mostly commercial and all those guys expand their pipes.

Makes me remember one of my first projects,had the same problem with 2inch and went to the exhaust place and got them ta do it ,was not the neetest but was OK ,some of the better hire places have expanders,ended up buying one for 2inch but it was not cheap ,at least now over here in Perth we have an option of popping down ta the Five Star store and useing Macs 4inch expander :teasing-tease: .cheers hillzabilly

Just to finish off the topic -

Ended up getting the 100mm coupler, cost around $50 :scared-eek:. In the end I was just feeling lazy and went for the ready made option.

Had to convince the folks at Reece that such a thing must exist... I'm glad I took the pipe section with me because the first thing they said was "oh that part just slips over the pipe", talking about the big end of the reducer... When I held it up to the pipe and showed her, she reckons, "well that's not a part that we stock so you'll have to go back to where you got it and ask them". I politely told her I made it, and it was actually a standard piece of pipe..."oh well yeah you just weld them together". Me: "a butt joint? that doesn't sound right, that would be weak as hell?", "Yep, that's how they do it".

Me: :violence-smack:

Meanwhile another lady is looking through their catalog on the computer... "hang on, I think this is what he's after". The other lady didn't want to talk to me after that, out the back to lick her wounds I think. She did say when I was on the way out "that stuff isn't very common anymore" or something - no shit, it's expensive as hell!.

So thanks computer lady at Reece, for actually taking a quick look and not giving me bullshit like the other one.



This isn't actually the flange that it's being soldered to, just what I had on hand at the time.

Really 50? Tradelink have it for about half

Holy shit, ripped off! I'll go ask them tomorrow and if they've got them, these two will be going back to Reece.

:text-+1: Reece here are hopeless, tradelink were so much cheaper and willing to help

Not surprised At the price from them.sharks!. I've found tradelink Not much better, but Every store seems different in prices. But, I've always hunted around ringing every plumb supply I could find local, I used mccanns Plumbing and plumbtec for everything, prices were way below everyone else.

You could slice the ends of and get two narrower joiners ,the ones I get are half that lenght wich is another pain with copper fittings reducers and tee's or elbows may have different dimensions at different suppliers ,asked for 3tee's at the same supplier and 2were thicker and longer than the other ,different brands as well ,was awkward to get all three the same.After the usual what ya doing with it question game .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

So, rang tradelink

Reece 100x50 reducer $30
100 coupler $50

Tradelink reducer $18
Coupler $13

That's not a typo... I double checked we were talking about the same thing and everything
Tradelink doesn't stock the couplers anymore though, he wasn't sure why they were in the system.
Guess we know why Reece can charge $50 for one now, simple supply and demand stuff...

Mate for $100 for two joiners ya local plumber would flare your pipe and solder the lot together for you and you'd still have enough left over for a carton :))

I know i would, heck it would cost less for you to pay post both ways for my expanders :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah I know, I'm catching on quick that it was an expensive way about it.
Spoke to a top chick at the other tradelink in town this arvo, she is going to order one in for me. She had a laugh when I told her the other price I had. She also said the coupler was $13, and $18 for the reducer. Maybe I should throw a carton her way for actually being helpful.

Yea that price sounds like the one i was told and they had them in stock. this was south brisbane tradelink