Lookinf for a sedaline torch

[jwingfield2k]

anything else you wanna know about sprinklers you let me know....

I appreciate the offer, but my dad has done sprinklers all his life. First off one little bottle of MAPP gas won't do the trick for heating a 2" line at once. It works (used it this morning) for doing half inch lines and 1" lines, but when you do two inch you need to whole pipe to be hot at once, and don't have to wait around all day for it to get heated up.

And he never used oxygen when he had his installation company (now he just draws the plans on autocad). I'm still guessing no one has a tank and torch kit they need to sell, and still as it stands I don't need oxygen for what I'm doing. But if you need any sprinkler help, feel free to ask.

Oh and the house that uses two inch mainline is a house that was built in the 50's (more than likely). Over off of Inwood and NW Highway area for those of you that know the area. Huge lawns, pools, yada yada. The house itself has two water meters. Same area that Ross Perot lives (not something to be proud of that is), but rather large houses.

[StevenAg03]

yes I know where your talking about...most all the houses by White Rock Lake have all copper systems...and they are the biggest pain in the ass to repair....

So your dad is now one a landscape architect that draws sprinkler plans up huh? I hate some of those guys cause they are always dicks and think their sprinkler designs always work in the real world like they do on paper and it rarely happens. What company did he work for? My dad is the commercial superintendent of Dallas operations for Choate Irrigation(the largest commercial and residential sprinkler company in the US) and i have my irrigation license and worked for my "step-mom's" irrigation company(not my dads, that would be a conflict of interest) when I'm home so i wont be needing any help...but if you have any questions feel free to ask

[Doug Krebs]

yes I know where your talking about...most all the houses by White Rock Lake have all copper systems...and they are the biggest pain in the ass to repair....

maybe a pain, but not compared to replacing the entire plumbing in 30 years or so when the galvanized iron pipe starts to corrode from the inside out. Ask my Al, I'm sure he'd love to talk pipe and how to lay it!

[StevenAg03]

FYI they dont use galvanized pipe anymore and it is very rare to find it in a house say less then five to ten years old

[Chadnutz]

Acetylene burns really dirty and bright by itself. We braze stuff at work with both oxy. and ace. I also ran the chilled water lines for our psychrometric test facility (a/cs) and it was 2" copper pipe. You will enjoy the extra heat and clean burn, I promise.

[Graystroke]

just jb weld the SOB!

[Doug Krebs]

Acetylene burns really dirty and bright by itself. We braze stuff at work with both oxy. and ace. I also ran the chilled water lines for our psychrometric test facility (a/cs) and it was 2" copper pipe. You will enjoy the extra heat and clean burn, I promise.

There is actually a torch designed to just use acetylene. Of course it also mixes oxygen from the air. It doesn't burn like acetylene coming out of an oxy/acet torch with black wispies. I've seen AC people use them and have also seen them used to repair brass instruments.

[agjohn02]

i use the acetylene only torch at work a lot for soldering brass. it siphons air and burns it with the acetylene. works good.

[Jackasic]

i've got a snake.

[jwingfield2k]

My dad owned a company called Main Three and Associates. Every new school that goes up, he draws. He does all the Eckerds, Chilis, Mac Grills, Tony Romas, all of Brinkers stuff, did willowbend mall, did stonebriar mall. He designs it all. And I totally agree with what you said about design guys being dicks, because theyve never been in the field. (That where alot of my repairs come in, moving heads to right spots). But he was design and install, and then sold his company and went straight to design. Not to take a wack at your dad, I'm sure he does great work, but Choate doesn't do the highest quality of work in the area.
Dad isnt a Landscape Architect, he's irrigation if I mistyped something earlier.

And still a little mapp gas bottle isnt enough to heat up a 2" pipe by itself. I'm just gonna take two torches to it tomorrow and cover both sides is what I'll end up doing. Pain in the butt, but it'll get it working.

Steven, do you work in Dallas area?

AgJohn and Doug hit it straight on the head. Thats what I was needing. the acetylene torch just like theyre talking about. Doesnt need oxygen.

And yes old old houses did come with galvanized. When one of my friends bought his house it had galvanized house mainline. He's taking care of all that this weekend. :-D

Steven sorry if I came across rude, I didnt' know you actually knew what you were talking about (compared to some people in here). But you are knowledgeable, and no harm meant. But still as it stands, I just need an acetylene only torch:-D.

Heres a pic of the doublecheck... two inch copper through the whole thing, old house. all the heads that were original were copper and sweated on throughout the whole system. This house has 12 zones, probably a few acre lot I supposed, two water meters for this property. And heres a pic of those old HallOMatic valves... PITA little butts. The diaphram on this valve went out, but the good thing about these old ones is that I can flip the rubber seal upside down cause its not all jacked (which I'm thinking the other side is). Hopefully thats the case and I won't have to put in a new valve and dig a massive hole. Oh and compression fittings aren't the most reliable things in the world for this situation, thats why I'm not going that route.

Oh, take a look at the new Weathermatic SL1600 controller and the weather station. Weathermatic took us out to III Forks the other day and showed us all about it. They're sending out a guy to install outs and the weather station this friday afternoon for free. I think I got a 12 station controller at john deere landscapes for 160+tax today, and if you buy a weather station the controller is free right now. Theyre the best controllers out there right now, and I wired and programed 12 stations in less than 30 mins for my first time messing with this thing outta the box. http://www.weathermatic.com/smartline/index.html
Until next time.

[Violentv8toy]

my dad can lay pipe better than your dad.

[StevenAg03]

ill agree with you on Choate not doing great work, but only with residential jobs...they just do cookie cutter jobs and each crew does about three or so eight zone houses a day. Commercial jobs are a totally different story. they do top notch wok on commercial jobs and that's why my dad works in commercial.


where is willowbend mall? my dad might have done it. in addition to him being commercial superintendent which intels overseeing all the foreman's crews, he has three of his own crews that only do jobs for the Sinacolas(rich, extremely picky Italians and they get whatever they want) and a select other group of people. i know he did the shops of legacy and a few other high profile malls. What is your dads name?

The reason i said landscape architect is because the landscape artist usually does the sprinkler design as well.

i am currently on a co-op with a company called Parker Hannifin so i am not working for my dad/step-mom. But they do jobs all over and mainly focus out in forney by where they live. she also rakes in some good dough by doing back flow testing since it is required every year. 20 a day during the summer at a minimum of $50 is some damn good money in my opinion. The other day she was *****ing cause she only made $800 profit for flagging, dropping off the crew, installing the controller, and doing a walk through with the customer. I wouldn't *****, but then i guess when your used to that profit number being somewhere around 2000 i guess you have a point.

you didn't come across rude...i was just giving you a hard time....

i don't know what old timers were thinking when they installed a sprinkler...i couldn't sweat a whole one in...but I'm sure they cost an arm and a leg...

are you gonna try and replace the diaphragm first? I'm sure you can find them at John Deer Landscapes or Whickham or even longhorn i suppose.

as far as controllers go, i don't care too much for weathermatic, but I'm partial to rainbird stuff. IMO their ESP-MC series is the top of the line commercial controller and the ESP-LX+ is the best "residential" controller on the market. Every Commercial sprinkler installed by Choate gets a ESP-MC regardless of size


and again...if you have any further questions, let me know...

[StevenAg03]

my dad can lay pipe better than your dad.

why are you watching either my dad or your dad lay pipe?

[jwingfield2k]

Hey, I just did a repair job on a 5.5 million dollar house the other day and it had 11 zones I think and it was using the Rainbird ESP LX 12 zone controller (i think 12 zones). I don't like Rainbird at all, I don't like their nozzles much. Of course on my system at the house we divided our lot into 17 zones. Everything is perfected for sun and shade spots, and weathermatic gave us a $3,000 controller, the old SL42, 6 months ago it was the best, now its obsolete. Read up on that weathermatic controller, I would lay down any amount of money that once you used this controller you'd love it. my dad specs it on every job now. His name is John Wingfield Sr, and his company is Cornerstone Irrigation. (self employeed, and hes the only employee). Alot less hassle that way. This new SL1600 SmartLine controller is perfect for commercial jobs as well, weathermatic brought in 1000 irrigation contracts and asked them all "what do you want to see in a controller."
BAM, its amazing, and can install in one second. It depends on what I'm doing that day. I mean I can pull in $2000 a day landscaping with one of my guys helping me, but thats not an everyday thing. But $1000 definately isnt unheard of for sprinkler work. I charged the customer 250 for the controller, (the guys at john deere landscaping gave me 60 bux off so I got it for 160 ttl). SO theres 90 I made and didnt do anything. And then a 100 installation charge and zone config. That took me an hour. SO theres 190 in a little over an hour. Then digging up this valve if need be will definately be a costly job.
Willowbend mall is at Hebron (Park BLVD) and Tollway up in Plano.
And Stonebriar is on 121 and Tollway in Frisco. My dad also does all the McDonalds, and well pretty much designs about everything now. His license is #851, if that tells you how long he's been in the business.

Oh no one really carries Hall O Matic stuff except for Hall Sprinkler anymore. They used to be located off of Forest and Greenville, but they now moved to Seagoville and Mesquite. I' not driving to either place, so if the rubber seal is bad, they're just gonna get a whole new valve.

This is controller can also test the mA to each valve so you can see when wires or solenoids are going bad. This system is 30 years old, and the controller also has a valve locator, where it sends pulses to the solenoid and u can hear a valve buried 2 feet underground completely covered up. No more searching the yard and using the coat hanger or poking screw driving method to find valve boxes. Work at 6am tomorrow, im out.

Steven, do you live in CS or Dallas area?

[Sharpe]

Sprinklers are boring can we talk about something more entertaining like Frick's spelling?