Beginning the Manifold

I just ran out of PVC glue and have to make a run to the store for more, so it seemed like a good time to drop in a little update.

First of all, it's nice and overcast and a little cool today, which is perfect weather for both doing lots of plumbing work outside and taking photos of white things with a dying digital camera, so you're in luck.

This morning Goldie and I sorted through all the fittings that had arrived, counted heads, and determined that we were missing/sent the wrong part for a couple of items.

But on the whole the orders were complete enough for me to work. I did need more stuff, namely several lengths of pipe and a few other fittings I forgot about, so I made a quick trip to Home Depot to get what I could.

When I got back, I laid everything out on the lawn and sorted fittings some more. Being organized is the only way to make anything this complicated go smoothly.

I laid out the first layer of the manifold pipes. Mostly I wanted to see how much space this was going to take up, which turned out to not be very much. Although I don't think I'm going to get around to attaching the valves today, I brought a few outside to help with spacing and fitting the manifold together.

Then I went on an orgy of cutting little tiny bits to connect my fittings. I'm really glad I bought the ratcheting cutter: it was a lot easier to use than the plain old anvil cutters when you have little hands and little grip strength.

Then I laid it all out again:

And glued and glued and glued until I ran out, only halfway through this part, which is only a quarter of what I am building. Amazing how much glue you can use.

One thing I had not considered when planning this adventure was canine interference with the assembly process. Also, a couple of fittings seem to have been adopted as toys, or possibly swallowed whole, because I can't find them.

More later, when I had done more gluing.

Technorati Tags: irrigation, landscaping, plumbing, tools

posted by ayse on 06/10/06