Attaching a blast gate to drainpipe

[Shadowfax]

For anyone wanting to attach a 4-inch alloy blast gate to a 110mm plastic pipe I have found a solution that does not involve cutting the pipe to shrink it or any other bits of kit at all. It is a rubber flex seal that would normally be used to join two ends of drainpipe where a degree of flexibility is needed.
The flex seal is a rubber sleeve with a jubilee clip at each end and it will fit 100mm to 115mm pipe. The rubber grips the alloy blast gate really well. All you have to do is tighten the jubilee clips and the rubber shrinks to fit. Magic!
I have fitted one this evening and the result is excellent but the best bit is that the blast gate costs about £10.00, the flex seal costs about £7.00 but you would have to shell out about £30.00 for a plastic, and IMHO inferior, blast gate to fit 110mm pipe.
You can’t loose, can you? Unless you want to go in for a bit of work redesigning the end of the plastic pipe, of course. This just seemed so easy.
Ignore this post if you know about these things already!
Cheers.

SF

 

[Midnight]

SF... if the hose connected on the downstream side of the gate were to block, would the rubber withstand the resultant crush forces??

Nice idea btw..

 

[Anonymous]

I know the rubber fittings your on about and they should withstand a right battering as they usually get booted all over the place on site :lol: .With the design of them i am sure if a blockage occurred they would just contract but reshape when blockage is clear as they are heavy duty fittings i've ran over a few too and they still worked fine .Never thought of using them on a ducted de system

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi SF

What a brilliant idea.

Well done.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Shadowfax]

We are talking about heavy duty stuff here. As AP says, I am sure if the seals did get crushed they would just re-shape themselves after the crisis had passed. They are made of thick rubber and look damn near bomb proof. After all, they are made to be left underground, if necessary.
If you make the join with the ends of the pipe and the blast gate pretty close together there would be no chance of the seals getting crushed out of shape anyway. Something else would have to give first!
I just thought this might save some time and effort for us so we can get on with making things.
Regards.

SF

 

[ike]

They're called 'Fernco' couplings for connecting cast iron to PVC. Available from your local builders merchant for usually about £6.

Ike

 

[Midnight]

Something else would have to give first!

That's reassuring to hear; like I said earlier, damn good idea dude..^5

 

[Shadowfax]

Just to add a bit more detail to the original suggestion I conducted a kind of impromptu experiment today. Not sure I meant to do it but while both motors on the extractor were running I closed one of the blast gates, not realising that the very one I thought was also open was actually closed too. Well..........the extractor attempted to haul itself up the hard pipework by reeling itself in along the short length of flexible tubing that joins it to the system. As I was facing the new flex seal at the time I can tell you that the result at that point was.........nothing! It quivered a bit but no more than that. By that time I had engaged another brain cell and opened the blast gate again; the extractor stopped doing its R2D2 impression and everything returned to normal.
Midnight, I think we can safely say the things are nearly bomb proof!
Quite exciting for a moment or two!

SF

 

[Midnight]

I think we can safely say the things are nearly bomb proof!
Quite exciting for a moment or two!

LOL..... nicely done Sir. I guess that's whatchya call a thorough test of a product. Yea, definitely one to take note of for future reference.