Skinfitting problems - me too. Life's a bitch

[Miker]

Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

I'm replacing a 1 1/4" male hosetail on the seacock with a 1 1/2". I've managed to position the ballvalve by using a nitrile washer. But with or without a washer, I cannot get the 45 degree elbow hosetail in the position I want. It positions correctly hand tightened onto a washer but goes offline with a final tightening with a spanner. What I was wondering was whether hand tight and using boss white and/or PTFE tape would be sufficient. If all else fails, I will have to get a straight one.

 

[pete]

Re: Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

You would probably get away with P T F E tape providing you screwed the fitting on several threads, by wrapping more turns than normal you should get it reasonably tight not a perfect solution but at worst all that can happen is you get a very slight leak on thread, at work (plumbing) I usually smear a touch of jointing paste eg boss white over the tape as it lubricates the thread and stops the tape being pushed off.
Ps on my boat the builders appear to have put resin on the threads before screwing together and it had locked them solid in the desired position.

Good luck

 

[poter]

Re: Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

Try locktight jointing string, or if that not available locally, get hold of some hemp wind it onto thread and then apply boss white or jet blue ( both jointing compounds.) if you, ( as pete the other plumber suggested ) use the ptfe and boss white you should be ok but as he stated you may get a small leak.


poter ( plumber )

 

[Miker]

Re: Thanks Poter and Pete

I shall hunt around the local plumbers merchants tomorrow to see what I can find.

 

[Miker]

Re: Resin?

Couldn't get any locktight string, only Bosswhite. Wondering whether epoxy 105 resin would lock it solid and watertight?

 

[oldsaltoz]

Re: Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

Hi Michael.
Epoxy resin will lubricate the fitting and set solid, if you need to remove it later some heat will soften the resin. No leaks and no fuss.

Avagoodweekend Old Salt Oz......

 

[gunnarsilins]

On my previous...

..yacht they used Sikaflex, or something similar to get all bits and pieces positioned right.
It was good - until something needed to be removed. Heat helped, but the joint was very hard to clean and use again.

Personally I use an excess of pfte tape as mentioned in earlier messages. Seems to be ok!

 

[Miker]

Re: Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

Thanks everyone. This afternoon I settled for plenty of PTFE tape and Bosswhite. I eventually found that two thin plastic washers took the hosetail to 45 degrees short of what I wanted by hand, and I then turned the extra quarter turn by wrench. I will give it a leak test before launching.
If it leaks it will be epoxy resin.

 

[andy_wilson]

Re: Skinfitting problems - me too. Life\'s a bitch

You certainly don't want to epoxy anything in place. Someday someone (you) may have to release something - try this scenario.......

The handle on the cooling seawater inlet ball valve breaks (rusted through) but you get it open with the mole grips. Rather than pay £150 for a lift / hold and re-launch, you decide to pay the more popular price of a tenner and dry out to change to fitting.

Except that some richard cranium epoxied it in place and you didn't have 200m shorepower cable or a heat gun with you ('cos you didn't expect to be changing it did you?).

So as you gently apply brute force to shift the valve, you break the seal between hull and skin fitting. Now you have a problem....testing the pumps and servicing them if need be before the tide comes in.

I'm a PTFE man myself.

Shame on the plumber who suggested using more than one means of sealing.

BOSS White, PTFE, hemp, whatever you fancy but only one at once.

PTFE is easiest to remove all traces of before re-applying.