Bulkheads

[David]

Is there a national company that manufactures bulheads?

Or is that a dealer thing?

[Anonymous]

Duncan, but I don't have any contact information for you.

[CharlieS]

Duncan is the only manufacturer that I am aware of. They only sell through distributors. These are nice, but pretty pricey.

We built our own out of pressure treated lumber. Cost was about 2500 with plumbing and electric vs 12K for the ones from Duncan. Its probably better to do it out of angle iron, but ours are doing fine so far.

Charlie

[pete f]

I have seen them at the Clean show, I built mine. Prefab are nice, but you could build out of PT wood, and then have a counter top type made for the cover. A local welder could fabricate the frame out of angle iron probably if you want that style. wood rot or rust in 15 yrs, take your pick!

[Lar Hylobates]

All mine are built custom out of pressure treated wood. The few old ones are falling in on themselves as they were from metal studs!

Thanks PWS!

[Anonymous]

I'm in the process of re-building mine. I took all the measurements and am doing most of it in my basement.

The framework is out of angle iron and in good shape - shouldn't have to do anything with it. The drains are recent PVC and plenty large enough, so there again I am not touching them.

The exterior is a plywood/pressboard material. It's in pretty good shape. I will replace a few spots and repaint the entire thing.

The water supply and valves are the main reason I'm doing this. I plan to redo the entire manifold with all new shutoffs and valves. I'm also going to install shutoffs at strategic locations along the manifold so that I can shut down a section of machines if needed while not affecting the others.

I will be using ball type of shutoffs, and will be replacing all of my rubber hosses with steel ones.

I'm doing the manifold in sections that can be transported to the mat and installed piece by piece.

I figure I'll have about $1200 bucks wrapped up in it when I'm done, not counting my labor of course.

One other thing...... I love to solder copper pipe, so I don't mind doing this job.

-dave.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how many machines you are talking about nor how big they are, but your numbers sound way low. I was thinking about replacing some piping behind 10 machines, and the numbers I put together for the piping and valves (a do it myself job as well) was over $1,200 just for the materials.

[David]

Man! Speaking of copper. About a month ago, I tried to replace a shutoff behind a topload. When I was tightening it, it began spewing a pinhole stream of water into the air. I tried to resolder it, but to no avail.

Called a plumber. He discovered that is was a crack and not a solder joint. We run to town, collect all the parts, run back and install it.

As we were doing all this, I could only thing of all the customers I was sending away. (I had been very busy during the weekend. Also I had to cut the water off at the meter because the main line shutoff wouldn't stop dripping. Having the water off at the meter killed all my other machines.)

After five hours, I think I sent away only one customer. And as soon as we finished and got the water back on, the customers started pouring in.

The Good Lord was looking on me that day!

[Anonymous]

My numbers aren't an estimate. I have already priced this stuff at Home Depot..... the biggest price tag is the shutoffs themselves.

I have 16 tops, 6 supermates, and one T-600 on this bulkhead. That's 23 machines, or 46 shutoffs. Add a few in-line shutoffs for the manifold, and we're talking about roughly 54 shutoffs (46 of one size, and 6 of the manifold size).

Can't remember the exact price, but $15/shutoff more than covers it. The rest is basically 100 feet of copper pipe. $1200 should more than cover it. What am I missing??

Granted, if I go with the steel hoses, I might crest my $1200 mark. Can't remember if those were in my original estimate....

Either way, I think I'm pretty close. I've done many plumbing jobs in the past and am pretty good at estimating the materials and cost.

However, I could be missing something......

-dave.

[Anonymous]

I was looking at 2" pipe that is feeding all large machines, mostly 50# and 75#. I think you may not have included all the elbows, tees and threaded hose connection. My Home Depot does not even carry 2" stuff anymore. I was going with 3/4" valves to each machine, for both hot and cold. I hope your numbers are right, they just seem low.

[CharlieS]

Dave -
All I have been able to find in steel hoses is small 1/2 inch stuff. Do you have a source for larger 3/4 inch steel hose?

Charlie

[SudsMan]

After reading David's experience with a cracked pipe, I was reminded of a similair problem I had with copper too.

My quick fix, to keep things running until I could shut down, was to place a piece of flat rubber gasket material over the crack and to hold it in place with a hose clamp. Worked like a champ! I happen to have a piece of this rubber material in the junk box (doesn't everyone have such a box?) and now make sure I keep some around for future leaks. A piece of automobile or bicycle tubing will work too. The hose clamp will apply enough pressure to keep the leak under control.

[David]

Sudsman, that's a good idea! I'll have to use it next time.

[Anonymous]

CharlieS: To date, I've only replaced a couple. I'm kinda re-doing this mat I bought six months ago. Whenever I work a machine, I replace the hoses.....

I can't remember if I got them at Home Depot, Menard's, or Sears Hardware. I frequent all of them depending on where I'm at at the time.

I have an extra hose or two in the back. I'll check this weekend and let you know.

I will be trying to find a supplier to buy these in bulk when I eventually am ready to install my bulkhead. I'll keep you posted of what I find.

-dave.