black pipe for natural gas

[Ferrous]

Is black pipe that is used in homes for natural gas supply line just plain old mild steel? I'm wondering if I can weld some some black pipe T's onto a piece of square tubing.

[Rocky D]

Yes, you can

[Ferrous]

Thanks Rocky. Now, whether I can weld in a circle when I haven't gotten straight line welding down yet is a different question altogether.

[Bobcatter]

So.... I could have welded my black pipe air line instead of threading?? huh....

[Sberry]

The pipe is plain steel but what are the fittings? Malleable of some kind, some tend to crack depending on the welding process, wouldnt use this for a racing part.
You could weld air lines.

[tigster]

i have some of this black pipe and was thinking of a project for it. as far as making T's with round pipe, i think i read somewhere - it may be in the archives now - when using the same diameter round pipe, someone said they had an easier way of joint prep. instead of filing the pipe on the end to a rounded out hollow, or using a special grinding machine of some kind, so the pipe would be a perfect fit for welding a tee, they cut it with either a bandsaw or chopsaw. they said a 30 degree cut on both sides of the end of the pipe would be a real close match. i was thinking of giving it a try. has any one tried this, and if so, how well does it work? TIA.

[rkjohnson]

they make two diffrent kinds of black pipe fittings cast steel and forged steel
the forged steel are a higher preasure fitting and are a hole lot easier to weld.

[rkjohnson]

the chop saw dose work good for making a ''t'' If you have a good drill press use a hole saw. take the center bit out turn the saw fast and cut slow.

[Rocky D]

Herew are some examples of weldable pipe fittings:

[Ferrous]

What I want to do is make a brew stand similar to this one here: http://www.alenuts.com/brutus.htm

He made his out of stainless steel. Notice the third picture down on that page. He welded stainless T's to the 2 inch by 2 inch square tubing to make a "gas beam". It has to hold gas pressure (propane in his case, but I'm using natural gas), so the welds have to be perfectly air tight under pressure. It makes for a cleaner look than running separate gas pipe exterior to the stand since the gas beam is integral.

I want to do the same thing, only I'm using mild steel for cost reasons. The stainless tubing for this project would cost me around $600 more than for mild steel.

So that's why I wanted to know if I could weld black pipe fittings to the mild steel tubing. If I decide I'm not up to the task for something as potentially dangerous as a gas beam, I may hire that part out to someone with more experience. I figure I can handle the rest of the stand, even if my welds aren't perfect.

[Rocky D]

Your "gas Beam" technically is a manifold, and you cannot weld threaded fittings for steel to the pipe...they are malleable iron and will crack....however if you're going to weld the connections, you don't need any fittings...you make 'em, or use the ones I posted above.

The stainless fittings can be welded...they're stainless, and it's ok.

[tigster]

i was thinking of making a foldable / portable welding table with the pipe i have. hence my interest in making tees for cross supports.

[Goulet!]

Ferrous,

Sounds like you need a thread O let. That would be steel so you could weld them to tube and its is threaded on one end. You could thread your tees into them. McMaster carr is good source of these type of items.

[Ferrous]

Ok, that's good to know. The threaded fittings are malleable iron and not suitable for welding.

Then making the T from pipe instead of using the weldable T fittings will reduce the number of welds by one per riser in my case. Two welds instead of three for each riser, then starting from the first gas valve on each leg it's all threaded pipe.

[Ferrous]

Ferrous,

Sounds like you need a thread O let. That would be steel so you could weld them to tube and its is threaded on one end. You could thread your tees into them. McMaster carr is good source of these type of items.

Great! I have not heard of that. I will check McMaster Carr. Thanks for that tip.

EDIT: Would that thread o let also be known as a pipe saddle, or would that work the same way? It looks like a weldable steel fitting that's threaded on the inside, unthreaded on the outside and beveled at the end that goes into the other pipe.