It seems that our friends in The Hutt Valley (New Zealand) Model Engineering Society, have been experiencing some difficulty in pipe identification, so they prepared the following brief instructions as a refresher to anyone who is having these problems.

     This is seen as the most efficient method of identifying a pipe.

1. All pipe is to be made of a long hole, surrounded by metal or plastic and centered around the hole.

2. All pipe is to be hollow throughout the entire length - do not use holes of different width.

3. The inside diameter of all. pipe must not exceed the outside diameter - otherwise the hole will be on the outside.

4. All pipe is to be supplied with nothing in the hole so gas and other stuff can be put inside at a later date.

5. All pipe should be supplied without rust; this can be more readily applied at the jobsite. (Note: some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipe. If available in your area, this new product is highly recommended as it will save a great deal of time on the jobsite.)

6. All pipe over 150 meters (500 ft.) long should have the words "LONG PIPE" clearly painted on each end so the crew will know it is a long pipe.

7. All pipe over 3000 meters (two miles) long should have the words "LONG PIPE" painted in the middle so the crew will not have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether it is a short or long pipe.

8. All pipe over 150 mm diameter must have the words "LARGE PIPE" painted on it so the crew will not mistake it for small pipe.

9. Flanges should be used on all pipe. Flanges must have holes for bolts quite separate from the big hole in the middle.

10. When ordering 90 degree, 45 degree, or 30 degree elbows. Be sure to specify right-hand or left-hand, otherwise you may end up going in the wrong direction.

11. Be sure to specify to your vender whether you want level, uphill or downhill pipe. If you use downhill pipe for going uphill, the gas will flow in the wrong direction.

12. All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads.  Do not mix threads, otherwise as the couplings are being screwed on one pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.

13. If a pipe is found to be too long, the center must be cut out.  This is to protect the pipe ends from damage.

14. It is customary to supply each pipe with two ends.  In an attempt to keep ahead of our competition, we are working on a pipe with only one end. This ensures you can use it to fill any desired length and join to any unknown coupling. Formerly the only option after finding one end left over on completion of a job was to find an unused orifice for its disposal.