[TheForge] pipefitting question

Mon Nov 3 20:26:01 2003

All,

I know there's got to be some pipefitting genius amongst this throng...  I
thought I'd found my answers at http://www.tpub.com/steelworker2/38.htm
instead I have more questions. Hopefully more intelligent than they would
have been a week ago.

I'm building a gantry crane for the shop using 5" pipe (as that's what they
had at the scrap yard at $0.15/lb.  It's overkill but cheap!)  The question
is; I want to fit the pipe at a 30 deg angle to a piece of the same
diameter.  The OD= 5.5", ID= 5.0", for what it's worth.  There will be two
legs welded at 30* to a vertical support pipe.

I've read the article noted above, and the pages leading up to it a dozen or
so times in the last week and think I get the jist of it... damn if it still
doesnt' add up.

1; as I want to attach the branch pipe to the header pipe (as far as I can
tell) without cutting a hole in the (vertical) header pipe, will this work?
or does it only apply to cutting a hole in the header pipe, too? since 3/4
of the article is about how to cut the hole in the header, and only 1/4
addresses cutting the branch pipe to fit?

2; for a 30* angle the cutback is only ~.75" to the top line and ~1.5" to
the bottom line from the side quarter lines.  That doesn't come anywhere
near dimensions of a right triangle with a 5.5" base and 30* opposite angle
= 9.5" side adjacent... What the heck am I missing here?

3; Is this one of those conceptual things that's not even ruffling my hair?
Jeesh! OR, it just occurred to me, am I on the completely wrong section?
pleaseandthankyou!

Even though the points I & G in the illustration are missing from the header
pipe, it doesn't seem to detract from the directions for the branch pipe.

Kevin Donahoe
Flying Pig Forge
Morrow, OH
[email protected]