Self soldered bulkheads for cooler

In the spirit of the soldering stainless steel thread, I want to make bulkheads for my cooler mlt and hlt. In the beginning of that thread, there is washer soldered on the hex nipple. I want to do something similar, but for a cooler. Could I just use a 1/2" NPT stainless nipple 1.5" long, a 1/2" stainless lock nut, and a 1.2" stainless washer and make my own that is longer for a cooler? I am thinking the soldered piece would go inside the cooler, and the screw the ball valve on the outside with the standard washer stack. I would be able to tighten things down much easier I would imagine this way. The only thing is would I set the nut where it would be length wise and solder it, then place the washer on and solder that again? Or do it in one step somehow?

Anyways, just floating ideas. Thoughts?

yes you can.

do it and document it for all to see.

-=Jason=-

milesvdustin said:

[...]The only thing is would I set the nut where it would be length wise and solder it, then place the washer on and solder that again? Or do it in one step somehow?[...]

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Because of their tight proximity, you'd want to solder the nut and washer to the nipple in one shot to assure a solid, non-crystalized joint...

Cheers!

It might be easier to solder a washer to whatever fitting you plan to use on the interior. A nut would be unnecessary in that case.

Bobby_M said:

It might be easier to solder a washer to whatever fitting you plan to use on the interior. A nut would be unnecessary in that case.

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This is a good idea. I'm ordering parts probably next week, I will give it all a shot and see what happens. Soldered bulkheads for coolers would be nice with the extra length. The reason I want the nut is to be able to put a wrench on it and screw the inside fitting and ball valve on nice and night without having to use a bench vise or something to hold the pipe to thread the fittings on.

I made up a few 2" nipples with a washer soldered to one end at the thread/flat junction. The benefit here is that the seal is made without regard to whatever interior fitting you use.

How did you get the washer to stay put while soldering it? And with this method, is it going to be flux, heat, then apply solder?

The washers I used were small enough that they didn't pass onto the largest part of the nipple. The solder joint is right at the edge of the flat/threads. I just flux the joint, put a loop of solder in that area and heat the nipple from underneath until the solder flows.