Trouble with Unions

[Psychonaut]

im having a really hard time pushing my 1” pipe all the way into my schedule 80 1” unions. Pushes into other fittings easily and slides all the way in. With the Unions I can’t even beat it all the way in with a hammer. Is this common? Will my tank leak if I can’t get them all the way in?
Thanks

 

[Ron Reefman]

I think schedule 40 pvc pipe and schedule 80 pvc pipe are the same OD and should fit.

I've always found that pipe and fittings go together much better when they are glued than when they are dry fitted. Are you saying that the pipe doesn't fit even when you are glueing it together? Have you tried fitting the same pipe into a schedule 40 union? And if I may ask, why are you using schedule 80 unions?

IMHO since your aquarium plumbing is all low pressure (assumption on my part) as long as the pipe is halfway in or more it should be OK.

 

[Brad Miller]

All pvc fitting , if primered and glued should slip in easily.
They may want to push back out at you sometimes.
Primer both hub and spigot, then quickly glue (don't let either of them start to dry) then insert and do a quarter turn to get rid of any air bubbles and hold for about 15 seconds.
Schedules can be mixed with no problem
Dry fitting will always be very tight, don't do that

 

[Psychonaut]

Ok yea I’m just dry fitting everything so maybe it will go smoother when I start glueing. I’m just using schedule 80 because I think it looks nicer. It’s just making it hard to dry fit because I can’t be sure of exactly how far each piece is going to slide in when it’s time to glue

 

[Brad Miller]

Sometimes dry fitting can get a piece of pipe stuck so bad, you can't get it out.
I've been a union pipe fitter by trade all my life....
If you don't do it all the time your fit will be off.
Each size fitting has a standard insert length, that's how I cut pipe and never dry fit.
If you do dry fit it up, chances are your dry fit isn't inserted all the way and when you go to primer and glue, everything will shift.
Good luck...and no swearing :)

 

[Psychonaut]

Haha ok thanks, ima gonna start glueing tomorrow we’ll aee how this goes

 

[homer1475]

Sometimes dry fitting can get a piece of pipe stuck so bad, you can't get it out.
Each size fitting has a standard insert length, that's how I cut pipe and never dry fit.
If you do dry fit it up, chances are your dry fit isn't inserted all the way and when you go to primer and glue, everything will shift.
Good luck...and no swearing :)

I've swore at my plumbing by dry fitting so many times.....

When I chose to just add the extra bit to the length(I measured the inside to the hub), and stopped dry fitting, everything went ever so smoothly.

 

[scriptmonkey]

would chamfering the pipe help?

 

[Mical]

I usually take fine sandpaper to my fittings then prime and glue.

 

[Brad Miller]

I see we have some plumbers now...:)
Measuring the inside hub (fitting) is also a good way to do it.
"Deburring" should be done too, sandpaper is a good way as is just using your fingers.
Chamfering is not necessary on pvc, usually that was done only to help the pipe go in the hub with the small angle that's made...ie..when pushing underground cast iron pipe into a hub with a rubber gasket and pipe lube.

 

[Mical]

No plumber here, lol. Just learned light sanding with sandpaper & dry fit before primer and glue made things go together "as planned"

 

[Psychonaut]

I have have chamfered all the edges, I’m still waiting for a couple ball valves to arrive before I can really glue everything. So I’m just going to pull all the black vertical pipe down, and instead of worrying about how far it’s gonna slide in I’ll just make sure it’s all the same length and then when I’ve primed and glued it I’ll beat the ****** in with a hammer if I need too. Thanks for all the advice everyone

 

[Psychonaut]

Ok y’all, so you were totally right. Dry fitting screwed me lol. Everything is glued and now I have a big gap. How would y’all fix this? Should I just cut the line and add another union to add some length?

 

[Captain Quint]

Ok y’all, so you were totally right. Dry fitting screwed me lol. Everything is glued and now I have a big gap. How would y’all fix this? Should I just cut the line and add another union to add some length?

Either replace one section of the PVC pipe with the measured difference of gap added. (ashamed to waste the good looking work you've got here though)

Or, measure the gap, cut one if the PVC pipes in half and add a coupling to make up the difference in the gap.

You've done some pretty work in the pics!

 

[rcmike]

Ok y’all, so you were totally right. Dry fitting screwed me lol. Everything is glued and now I have a big gap. How would y’all fix this? Should I just cut the line and add another union to add some length?

Yep, that's what happens! A quarter inch here, a quarter inch there, next thing you know your 2 inches too short. Did you glue everything already?

 

[Psychonaut]

Oh yea everything is glued tight haha. Cest la via.Thanks @ captain quint! Yea I reckon I’m gonna head over to the hardware store and fix my boo-boo. I’ll post an update after I get this thing fixed

 

[Psychonaut]

 

[Psychonaut]

Thanks for the help, that doesn’t look THAT bad. A little bummed but I keep telling myself it’s the back of the tank anyway lol. This is my first tank, so lesson learned. Next time, no dry fit, just measure well

 

[Captain Quint]

Thanks for the help, that doesn’t look THAT bad. A little bummed but I keep telling myself it’s the back of the tank anyway lol. This is my first tank, so lesson learned. Next time, no dry fit, just measure well

It still looks great! :)

 

[Engloid]

I will often make up all of the pipeline, glue it all up......then measure and fit the last piece. It tends to work best that way. If you have a header that has to have tee's a specific distance apart, you have to plumb and glue to each one individually, one at a time.