Tweaking your welded fittings.

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Bobby_M

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I've recently had an exchange with a customer of one of my sight glass kits that made me realize that many people don't know that couplings and other welded in fittings can be tweaked. When you tell a welder to put a coupling into your vessel, I doubt you or the welder ever specifically think about the importance of having it be level. OK, correction, it doesn't really matter much for a ball valve bulkhead port or a thermometer port but it is important for sight glasses so the tube goes vertical.

What if the welder botched it or you didn't think of even mentioning it? Tweak it. I realize it's most common to have a coupling welded directly but I'm showing a TEE here for illustrative purposes.

EZSBtweak.jpg
 
Good tip Bobby.

Another tip is to be sure you have the fittings on hand and mark a line on the coupling so that your valves and sight glasses and thermometers will face up after the couplings are welded on.

You can tweak the direction a little bit with more or less wraps of teflon tape but if the valve ends up upside down when screwed into the coupling you will be unhappy.
 
Yeah, in the case of a thermo threading into a tee, you don't have much choice. The worst case is when it tightens with the 12 oclock position stuck at 9. If you can't budge it with pipe over your wrench up to the 12 position, you have to back all the way out, counting the turns as you go and teflon the heck out of it. Then you make sure you stop at the right number of turns. Once you go past it, you can't go back without breaking the seal.
 
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