No, not like that - though I bet that caught your attention. For those who don't know, in plumbing a nipple is a piece of pipe or conduit which is threaded on each end. As far as I can tell, the proper name for the female part (the nipple is male...) is simply a "connector", though I tend to think of them as a pasties. Nothing like going through the hardware store and seeing that they are selling chrome-plated nipples. But I digress...
I've been trying to install a Thermosight on my new 15-gallon kettle. The main idea here is that a nipple goes through the hole in the kettle wall, and a connector is screwed on to each end and together they compress the O-rings and washers into a good seal. At least that's the theory. In practice, however, this isn't working for me. I couldn't get a good enough seal, because I couldn't thread on the connectors far enough. Upon closer examination, I saw that the threads on the nipple were crushed; I wentto the hardware store to get a replacement for the nipple and connector (see above...).
That, however, didn't help - I saw similar behaviour. Looking at the nipples end-on (I don't have my calipers handy), it looks like they are slightly tapered toward the end (football-shaped), so as it threads into the connector, the diameter increases to the point where it will simply stop. As I've got a must-brew batch going for tomorrow, I'm considering either fashioning a plug to seal it, or adding a washer or two to take up the space. Has anyone else run into something like this? Thoughts/suggestions?
-Don
