SOLWAY FIRTH - drain cock pipework

[darrene]

A pretty simple issue but I thought I'd garner opinion before leaping in...

I picked up a nicely made set of draincocks for SOLWAY FIRTH; they were the right thread for the cylinder chest and have threaded outlets with union nuts; I thought this might prevent possibly damaging the original ones when trying to silver-solder on some outlet pipes to those - an option I can then still pursue if necessary.

The union nuts fit 1/8 pipe nicely but I note the mating face on the cock is flat. I'm unsure of the best way to achieve a good mating of the tube against it.

Would you just flange the end of the copper tube which sits inside the nut? I'm considering a small ring of solder insteadto provide more of a surface and which i can extend down the tube to act as a shoulder inside the nut - filing to size to get a good fit?

[coniston]

You could silver solder on flat ended union "cones" like the ones used predominantly on injectors, you should be able to use 3/32" pipe allowing enough spare room for the "cones" in the nut. The smaller pipe would look less bulky on a 3 1/2" loco as well.

Chris

[darrene]

May 16, 2021 22:07:54 GMT coniston said:

You could silver solder on flat ended union "cones" like the ones used predominantly on injectors, you should be able to use 3/32" pipe allowing enough spare room for the "cones" in the nut. The smaller pipe would look less bulky on a 3 1/2" loco as well.

Chris

Thank you Chris. I hadnt realised flat ended nipples existed; sounds perfect. I'll give that a try

Darren