This started in the Shifting Sands thread; I've cc'd this to the
refrigeration discussion, as it's a bit afield from sanding :{))

Hi, and thanks to Wayne and Vic for enlightening me on stand-alone taps. I
can buy them at anywhere from 6 to 20 bux.

I do still have a problem about feeding the gauge set with it, as I have
only 3 hoses with my set; indeed, connecting to the second end of the center
line was my challenge. (The center has two males, one down, one out.)

The connections for the high and low pressure lines have a common air hose
connector - pull to allow/release ring - and a valve on them as well as on
the gauges, a curiosity to me as to why that rather than a direct hose
connection - but have the male open end on the hose-connect assembly/handle.
All three hoses are open on one end, and valve depressor on the other.

It was my recollection (it's been a while since I had to use one) that the
refill kits one buys have a made-up fitting at the can end, not a screw-off,
so I didn't twig to the possibility of a tap with just a male fitting coming
out.

I may have to buy a 4th hose (?) to make it work, or an adapter such as
Neal's picture showed, however, without extra hardware left somewhere...

As to the gas, it takes all of 6 ounces to fully charge our system, so
hunting for bargains on cans isn't a high priority :{)) When we bought our
car here and the AC failed after some work on other stuff, the mechanic who
screwed it up claimed he'd put gauges on it and found no pressure (instead,
the failure of the AC to run was his neglect of not putting on the high-temp
alarm connection back on when he did some other work); I bought a can with a
trigger and gauge; it read 150# (and was able to return it immediately from
outside AutoZone where I'd tested it), so I knew he was full of ****. As to
the WalMart can lead Neal provided, it has oil, and Danfoss is adamant about
putting in nothing other than straight gas, so I'd get the one without, if I
went that route for charging (still have the challenge of attaching the
pop-on end, of course; perhaps I'd have to buy an adapter such as his boat
pic showed for the other end of the ell-connection on the gauges - anyone
have a name for that fitting? It would be one which screws onto a 134a tap,
not a standard R12 [or, at least, the gauges suggest it's only for 134a, so
I presume there's a difference]).

Thanks again to all respondents. Tackling the handle seating in the freezer
lid today - once again, it broke out, as there isn't enough wood at the lip
to support the stress it endures, and the screws have stripped out more than
once, the latest before the current having been resolved by using 5-minute
double-tube syringe-type epoxy and shaping it with a chisel as it started to
set. I'm thinking of using our fairing compound this time (epoxy 2-part
mixup), as it will start setting at 4 hours, and be permanent in a day. When
it's green, it works easily, but is rock hard in the end; I'd drill and tap,
instead of using wood screws as in the priors. The 5-minute stuff wasn't
rock hard when I went to remove the broken bits...

Thanks for all the chime-ins. Even in this relatively limited forum (which
I vastly prefer as it's NNTP based rather than web interface), I get what I
come for!

L8R

Skip and crew

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain