Dramm - Drill Tap for Irrigation Nozzles

Brand: Dramm

Drill Tap for Irrigation Nozzles

A tap that cuts a 3/8 in Whitworth thread directly into PVC pipe, so a Dramm nozzle screws into the pipeline with nothing between it and the pipe wall. Dramm screw-in nozzles are not NPT: Pin-Perfect, Nifty, Misty Mist and the threaded JetRain and JetFog all take a 3/8 in Whitworth thread, and an NPT tap will not cut a thread they can seal in. Tapping is the alternative to the Dramm assembly insert, and in two cases it is the only method, since inserts cannot be used with High Pressure Misty Mist nozzles and cannot seal in schedule 80 PVC. One tap does an entire installation, so it is normally bought per crew rather than per nozzle.

There is one thread here, 3/8 in Whitworth, because that is the only thread Dramm screw-in nozzles use; the real decision is between tapping and using an assembly insert. Tap when the pipe is schedule 80 PVC, when the nozzles are High Pressure Misty Mist, or when you want the nozzle bearing on pipe wall rather than on a gasket. Use inserts instead when the pipe is schedule 40 and the line runs at or below 50 psi, because a plain 7/16 in hole per nozzle is much faster to produce than a tapped one. Either way, clamp the pipe and work on a drill press or with an alignment jig: a hole that is out of round or off axis leaks regardless of how the thread was made, and on a tapped hole there is no gasket to take up the error.

Specifications

Key Features

• Cuts the 3/8 in Whitworth thread used on every Dramm screw-in irrigation nozzle
• Threads the pipeline directly, so no gasket or insert sits between nozzle and pipe
• The method Dramm specifies for High Pressure Misty Mist nozzles, which cannot be mounted on assembly inserts
• Works where assembly inserts do not, including schedule 80 PVC whose wall is too thick for an insert to seal against
• Also the correct route for threaded JetRain and JetFog nozzles going into rigid PVC
• One tool covers an entire installation, so it is a crew purchase rather than a per-nozzle cost

Ideal Applications

• New overhead PVC pipelines tapped nozzle by nozzle
• Schedule 80 PVC mains and headers
• High pressure mist cooling and humidity lines running High Pressure Misty Mist nozzles
• Adding threaded nozzles to an existing rigid pipeline
• Installer and maintenance crew tool kits

Buy it with the nozzles it threads for, Pin-Perfect, Nifty, Misty Mist and the threaded JetRain or JetFog, and keep Dramm assembly inserts on hand for the schedule 40 sections of the same job.