Don't we all...?
Well, for sure I do. And it got me into some trouble (yet again). So here goes in case you'd rather not get frustrated like I was.
I got a paint pressure pot some time back. I don't know that I would put much pressure in that thing considering it's some generic chinese aluminum piece but I needed something to make a vacuum chamber and I figured it would do safely for that. (Well, the sealing is not that great, but that's a story for another time.)
So, now I needed to get some fixtures and hoses to connect to the thing. It came with several hoses with flare connectors on them and the lid had various pipe couplings (1/4", 3/8" etc). Well, I had difficulties threading tapered threaded connectors onto it. They sort of fit, but not well and not fully threading in. I figured crap quality control yet again.
But no. Did some measurements and some googling and finally it dawned on me that all those connectors were BSPT. Not NPT like my naive self assumed given that this stuff was sold in the US. I sort of knew this happened, but did not really think about it at first and was wondering what the heck was going on. (I'm old, what can I say.) I did know that all Euro stuff is pretty much all BSPT (with a sprinkling of related DIN) but did not full realize that BSPT is the dominant standard in China (and much of Asia too apparently), and for that matter for much of the world aside from the US it seems. BSPT kinda sounds ancient to my US-centric ears -like Whitworth stuff-, but it is not at all, it seems. That's on me.
To give you an idea, I was struggling with 1/4" connectors. They are indeed 1/4" (more or less) but the BSPTs are 19tpi for the tapered threads, not 18 like the US NPT ones (and are 55deg, not 60deg but that's less of a concern thanks to Teflon tape). Does not look that different to the naked eye, but yea, they don't thread very well mixed up. You can sort of do it with some grunt (and blame it on poor QC) but probably not a great idea. And, it turns out that of all the many thread gauges sets I have, none of them includes 19tpi.
So, yes, the obscure importers of generic chinese goods will happily sell you BSPT stuff in the US and not tell you that they are incompatible with the prevalent US standards. Kinda like when I buy generic chinese hardware or material on Amazon and they advertise the dimensions in imperial units but they are actually not, they will say 1" but it really measures at 25mm. Close enough I guess.
So, I had to buy a bunch of BSPT to NPT adapters. More stuff to keep sorted out in the boxes strewn around the shop to confuse my feeble mind.
At least I got to buy some BSPT adapters for the 80 while I was at it.
So there you go! You probably would have thought of this right away, but I didn't... I guess the moral of the story is that if it does not fit great, there may be an issue somehow (yet again)...
Well, for sure I do. And it got me into some trouble (yet again). So here goes in case you'd rather not get frustrated like I was.
I got a paint pressure pot some time back. I don't know that I would put much pressure in that thing considering it's some generic chinese aluminum piece but I needed something to make a vacuum chamber and I figured it would do safely for that. (Well, the sealing is not that great, but that's a story for another time.)
So, now I needed to get some fixtures and hoses to connect to the thing. It came with several hoses with flare connectors on them and the lid had various pipe couplings (1/4", 3/8" etc). Well, I had difficulties threading tapered threaded connectors onto it. They sort of fit, but not well and not fully threading in. I figured crap quality control yet again.
But no. Did some measurements and some googling and finally it dawned on me that all those connectors were BSPT. Not NPT like my naive self assumed given that this stuff was sold in the US. I sort of knew this happened, but did not really think about it at first and was wondering what the heck was going on. (I'm old, what can I say.) I did know that all Euro stuff is pretty much all BSPT (with a sprinkling of related DIN) but did not full realize that BSPT is the dominant standard in China (and much of Asia too apparently), and for that matter for much of the world aside from the US it seems. BSPT kinda sounds ancient to my US-centric ears -like Whitworth stuff-, but it is not at all, it seems. That's on me.
To give you an idea, I was struggling with 1/4" connectors. They are indeed 1/4" (more or less) but the BSPTs are 19tpi for the tapered threads, not 18 like the US NPT ones (and are 55deg, not 60deg but that's less of a concern thanks to Teflon tape). Does not look that different to the naked eye, but yea, they don't thread very well mixed up. You can sort of do it with some grunt (and blame it on poor QC) but probably not a great idea. And, it turns out that of all the many thread gauges sets I have, none of them includes 19tpi.
So, yes, the obscure importers of generic chinese goods will happily sell you BSPT stuff in the US and not tell you that they are incompatible with the prevalent US standards. Kinda like when I buy generic chinese hardware or material on Amazon and they advertise the dimensions in imperial units but they are actually not, they will say 1" but it really measures at 25mm. Close enough I guess.
So, I had to buy a bunch of BSPT to NPT adapters. More stuff to keep sorted out in the boxes strewn around the shop to confuse my feeble mind.
At least I got to buy some BSPT adapters for the 80 while I was at it.
So there you go! You probably would have thought of this right away, but I didn't... I guess the moral of the story is that if it does not fit great, there may be an issue somehow (yet again)...