I like to drop in a little mechanical item from time to time, so here’s a nod to AvE with a teardown of what turned out to be a beautifully designed and machined stopcock. The overalls I mentioned were the Carhartt R28 carpenter overalls with a strong built in tool pouch that seems to be popular in the USA with plumbers, sprinkler fitters, elevator mechanics and other trades that use loose hardware.
Paul of Brix Workwear in Ireland generously arranged a set of the standard R01 bib overalls as a gift, so that technically makes him the current official workwear sponsor of bigclivedotcom. He didn’t ask for a link, but here’s a link to his website:-
The brass stopcocks (if they are actually brass) are a common item usually sold in 15mm and 22mm pipe sizes (plus some bigger ones.) When you see the amount of machining in them it makes the price remarkable and suggests major mass production in a competitive market.
A bit of research suggests that the graphite may have been a graphite packing washer optimised for high temperature applications. I’ve never seen it used in an application like this before.
Note that the adjustable spanner was not up to AvE’s standards.
The compression glands are supposed to be tightened until they grip and then a percentage more to fully compress the olive onto the pipe. Personally I overdo it out of mild paranoia of pipes popping out of fitments.
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