09-12-2015, 11:15 AM
[attachment=11793][attachment=11794][attachment=11795]I have had a 44 year old Craftsman AKA Reed Mfg hand pipe threading set for about 18 years. Bought if from a guy going out of his plumbing business. The ratchet handle houses a 4"x4" square threading die and an alignment collar to keep the threads straight. It works great doing my gas line and boiler lines around my house. I moved lots of pipe over the years. But it is hard making nipples under 4" because the length is too short to hold it in the vise and with the alignment collar there isn't enough room to start the threads. I have fudged this and that and have had good results but its time consuming. So I dreamed up this piece of pipe that was threaded and a 3,000 lb coupling was screwed on. The 3,000 lb couplings are the thick steel ones not the cheap cast ones from the hardware store. Then I chucked up the small pipe with coupling and turned the coupling down to fit the next size pipe. Hence a 1/2" thread will now use a 3/4" alignment collar when making the short nipples. The one end for the short nipple is threaded like normal, cut off the desired length and turned into the 3,000 lb coupling and pipe that is now in the pipe vise. Then the ratchet is started threading until its done (lots of good sulfur threading oil here). Then the die is removed and the now short nipple is turned out of the coupling. Ready for the next one. Sounds like a long process but it isn't and the results are good. Made 2 more adaptors one for 3/4" and another for 1"...Bob