Winning with improvisation—Repairing an air compressor part

Recently I was out in my shop on a cool winter morning and decided to take apart the air dryer on my air compressor to clean it out. Being in a rush, as I tend to be, I snapped a double-threaded pipe nipple that connected the dryer to the compressor. One side of the nipple broke off in an adapter.

I didn’t have another double-threaded pipe nipple, and I really didn’t feel like making a run to the big-box hardware store. What I did have was a salvageable half of a double-threaded pipe nipple, a bushing that was the right thread size, silicon bronze TIG rod, and a welding machine.

Silicon bronze is a nice rod to have around because it’s so versatile. I use it in my art a lot, not only to give a nice color contrast, but also because it allows me to weld (or TIG braze) dissimilar metals. In this case, I figured I’d use it to connect the brass bushing to the good half of the brass nipple.

My quick-fix plan started out promising. I cleaned up the good half of the nipple, sat it on the bushing, and using the silicon bronze rod, was able to fuse the two pieces together. It didn’t look like much, but it was a strong bond and airtight to boot.

Where I screwed up was extracting the broken piece of the nipple from the adapter. I had it in my vise a little too tight and I heated it up a little too hot while trying to loosen the thread lock. In doing, so I mushed the female side a bit. I straightened it up, but the threads were damaged, and I didn’t have the proper taps to fix them. So, once again, silicon bronze came to the rescue.

After partially screwing in the “new” double-threaded pipe nipple, which was brass, to the adapter, which was steel, I was able to TIG braze them securely together.

I’m sure pipe fitters and plumbers are having a fit reading this and looking through the pics, but I’ve got an airtight setup, and I saved myself a trip to buy parts. I’d say it was a win/win.

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