Block Joints, Flange Joints, and Branch Joints.

A BLOCK JOINT is a wiped soldered joint, both uniting and supporting pipes fixed vertically in a chase; and when such joints are properly made there is no better way of fixing soil-pipes and ventilating-pipes inside a house. The other day, on examining some very tall stacks of 6 in. 7 lb. lead soil-pipe fixed on this method more than a quarter of a century ago, they showed no signs of age, and on testing them they were found to be perfectly sound.

2. A wood block of the thickness of a brick is placed over the top end of the lower pipe and built into the wall, as shown at Q, fig. 44. Around the hole on its upper surface a dishing is made, for opening out the end of the pipe, and for wiping a greater depth of solder upon the ends of the pipes.

3. A lead flange, f, is put over the end of the pipe and dressed down into the dishing of the wood block to solder upon, and to prevent the solder running through between the block and the pipe in making the joint. The hole in the flange must only be cut just large enough to admit the end of the pipe through it; and then when the latter is opened out, the inner edge of the flange will be made to fit tightly to the pipe all round. The flange should be shaved and tinned before it is fixed, and it should have a margin on the outer edge of the shaving of about 1/2 in., which should be well soiled, as should also be its edges and underside, that there may be no difficulty in removing the surplus solder after the wiping.

4. The end of the pipe should be opened with a tan-pin and rounded back with a mallet for its edge to stand up about 1/2 in. from the face of the tinned edge of the flange, so that the solder may unite both to its outer and inner surfaces for a depth of about 1 1/4 in., as shown at p, fig. 44.

Fig. 44. - Section of a Block Joint.

5. In opening and turning back the end of the outer pipe upon the block be very careful not to turn any part of it back at right angles with the pipe, i.e., for the inner edge of the taft to have a square edge, as ill such cases the lower pipe is only united to the upper pipe by the thickness and strength of the soldering upon the edge of the pipe, in 7 lb. pipe only equal to about 1/8 in.; as no matter how wide the taft may be, the only part in contact with the upper pipe, and soldered to it, is just the thickness of the pipe at the turned edge, and this may have been much weakened on its underside by the way it was tafted. This right-angled taft joint is one of the weakest that can be made, whereas the block-joint, as shown in fig. 44, is one of the very strongest.

6. To insure a close-fitting jointing, to prevent the solder running through to the inside in making the joint, tap the tan-pin into the end of each pipe at the moment of fixing them together.

7. The joint is easily wiped when there is room to get the ladle round the pipe in front and its right-hand and left-hand sides, the brickwork being cut away, as shown at MY, fig. 44, for the purpose. Splash on the solder well upon the end of the upper pipe, and work it well into its place with the splash-stick as you go on; and then, when it is ready for wiping, rub the iron right round on the edge of the upper pipe, letting it at the same time touch the outer edge, and wipe one-half or two-thirds of the joint with one wipe; change hands with the cloth and iron and complete the joint, leaving it without a mark of beginning or ending.

8. A flange joint, as shown in fig. 45, is made in a similar way to the block joint just described. It is chiefly made on waste-pipes, and small pipes where they pass through a floor.

In fixing the pipe, working from the bottom upwards, the top end of the pipe is made to stand an inch or two above the level of the floor. A lead flange (r, fig. 45), as described in the block joint, is then put over the end of the pipe, and a piece of board, about 3/4 in. thick, is placed on the flange for the blade part of the saw to rest upon, as a guide in cutting the pipe off to the requisite length for tafting. When the pipe is cut off, the board is removed, and a turn-pin is driven down into the pipe with one or two sharp strokes of the mallet, and the end of the pipe is then tafted back upon the flange.

Great care should be taken to see that the end of the pipe stands up high enough to be well beaded back upon the flange. Sometimes when the pipe is brought through the floor, or bath-safe, or closet-safe, in an oblique direction, the pipe is cut off too short on its inner side to allow for a proper taft, and then no matter how well wiped the joint may look on the surface, a defect may soon be found in it and much evil caused. The connection of the upper pipe with the lower, and the soldering of the joint, need not be described.

Fig. 45.

Fig. 46.

9. There is no form of wiped soldered joints so easy to make as a taft joint, and wherever it is found, except to connect certain pipes together on floor surfaces, it is a mark of the incompetence of the joint-maker. The end of a pipe is tafted back from an inch to an inch-and-a-half to form a base for the solder to rest upon. The end of the pipe to be connected to it is shaved for a length of about 1 1/4 in. and inserted into the end of the tafted pipe, as shown at s, fig. 46. The solder is then splashed or poured on, and the joint wiped. A feat that hardly an " X Y Z " plumber would crow over.

10. A branch joint is a joint uniting the end of one pipe to the side of another at any angle; but no branch, be it waste-pipe, soil-pipe, or drain, should enter a main pipe at right angles, as shown at B, fig. 47, though this is often done, especially to overcome some obstacle, as an iron joist or girder. In lead pipes, however slight the fall may be, the pipe can always be nosed over, or nosed downwards, and made to enter the main pipe in the way of the current, as shown at b, fig. 48. And where a girder stands in the way, and compels a bend being made in the branch, as shown in fig. 49, instead of bending the pipe and entering the main soil-pipe at right angles, it can as readily be bent to enter it obliquely, as shown in fig. 48. Sometimes a knuckle-bend is all that is necessary to accomplish this.