Build Your Own Faucet

When I discovered I needed a new faucet for my laundry room sink I didnt want to choose between a cheap faucet that will only last a few years and an expensive one. I decided to build my own.
The faucet is made from ý copper pipe and solder fittings, two ball valves, and two 3/8 threaded fittings.
The specific pipe lengths, configuration, and installation will vary based on your needs and tastes so I leave that for each person to determine what will work best in their situation.

Step 1 Tools and Materials

Tools:
Drill and drill bits
Hand saw
Tape Measure
Combination square
Pipe cutter
Mallet
Wrench
File
Steel wool
Pliers
Safety glasses
Heat resistant gloves (not pictured)

For soldering:
Wire pipe brush
Sand paper
Torch
Solder flux
Solder
Brush (for applying flux)
Lighter

Materials
Wooden blocks (One 8 in length the other 3 �)
Bolts of greater length than the width of the block
All pipe materials have � solder joints:
2 Ball valves
3 90� elbows (I bought extra in case of problems with soldering)
1 T-joint
2 3/8 threaded converters for attaching supply hoses
1 3/8 pipe thread to 3/4 hose thread adapter
Copper pipe

Comments

[pnielsen1]

that is so awesome that is how I am going to make the facettes for my wine making room.

[Squid Tamer]

At first I thought it was really ugly, but the more I looked the more beautiful it looked. A simple elegance, what with the slightly differently colored valves and the polished copper. If the wood was stained and lacquered it would look like a weird fusion of ugly home brew and fine woodwork/plumbing.

[pribich]

If I install this sort of faucet in a bathroom I'll likely spend a lot more time making it look pretty. Also I don't have a lot of experience sweating pipes, so you can see in some places where the excess solder shows.

[pfred2]

That is why you wipe your sweat joints with a nasty flux rag while they're still hot, to knock off the excess solder. Sort of slobs the solder a little further on the pipes though. I think your joints look good.

[SammyFM]

It´s so ugly ;-)

[qwertyzzz18]

It might be ugly to you, but i think it's awesome

[pfred2]

it is pretty ugly as far as faucets go these days.

[TerryCary]

I built something very similar and ran it out through the wall so I could have warm water to the hose bib for the kids. The problem I found was that with the hose bib closed and both valves open the cold water ran back through the hot water pipes to the house. Just something to watch for, or add check valves. Nicely done, and I haven't had any troubles with the valves, just tighten up the caps once a year.

[pfred2]

You beat me to it but setups like this can backfeed cold water to the hot supply. Laundry faucets are pretty cheap/free so I'd never go this route myself. Other than the block of wood this setup looks OK to me though.

[2 stroke]

i dont have a propane torch can i use my stick welder im not sure if that weld copper i does weld steel if it doesn't ill use my whole assortment of stainless steel pipes

[2 stroke]

as a plus can you tell me how to get hot water to the garage i dont think of it as a necisity though is it possible to bild this with only a cold water tap i really need a sink in the garage hat clean paint brushes and parts with the hose outside

[pribich]

I don't think the stick welder will work because it will likely get much hotter than you need. Luckily you can likely get a basic propane torch pretty cheap at most hardware stores. Even a small refillable torch lighter can work since it takes very little heat to melt the solder. If you are looking for a hot water line you'll need to run a line from the the nearest plumbing spot. One of the easiest ways is to use pex tubbing with sharkbite fittings. It will be much more simple to do that compared to running copper tubing. Let me know how it goes.

[2 stroke]

di need to look for a drain too the problem is that the drain and hot water is at least about 100 feet away there is a copper pipe runnig accross where i wan the sink and the pipe leads to a garden hose spigot outside can i tap into that copper pipe with a tee fitting and run a stainless steel sink ill get at he scrap yard off that and drain the water outside into a curbside storm drain or into the floor drain in the basemet rite beside the garage underneath

[pribich]

I would highly recommend using a floor drain. The storm drain outside drains directly to local waterways, thus the paints, solvents, and such from your sink will wind up directly in nearby streams. Floor drains are often connected to the city sewer system.

[Corny76]

good idea, I would only replace wooden base with ceramic base (made from cut bathroom ceramic tile). Ceramic material is better water resistant than wood.

[pribich]

I like that idea. The nice thing about wood is that you can put the two small bolts through it to hold the faucet in place. Though if you have a solution I'd love to hear it because it would work a lot better.

[servion]

brilliant! with some designing and finishing uou could actually build one that could be very suitable for bathroom or kitchen sinks. If I ever get there I will post pictures.

[caseyvitti]

 Another thing you could do to for more support is switch to threaded galvanized pipe. You also wouldn't have to worry about your soldering skills and the pipes wouldn't have to be polished afterwards. 

[stephenniall]

Simple idea a bit of Copper pipe and some ball valves ! 

Im going to make one for a Booth for spraypainting in my shed

[pheenix42]

Fantastic!  If I ever set up a utility sink, I'm doing the plumbing like this!

[pribich]

Glad you enjoyed it so much. If you ever do please let me know how it goes.

[eoingrosch]

i think this is really cool.  i like the look of it too.  awesome job.  i'll probably make my own, similar to yours.  thanks!

[pribich]

Cool. You should let me know how it turns out.

[Smeeon]

wow! creative and useful, especially if you have some of this junk laying around like i do. friggen faucets are super pricey for such a simple device. when you don't need anything special for your project there is no reason buying something special in my opinion. good work!

[pribich]

Thanks. I am glad you enjoy it so much.

[Weissensteinburg]

Cool! I like the way this simplify things. In a conventional faucet, the two pipes combining is always hidden. This feels like a magic trick being revealed :D

[pribich]

Thanks. I am a big fan of showing what is going on. When I build furniture I almost always use through tennons so you can see the joint.

[saintrojo]

Nice, thought of doing that a ways back but voted down. Should last a long time. You can get handle extensions which would move the handles away from the valve so you could box it in and neaten it up( maybe for bathroom sink). I used them on a job once( was a union pipefitter for ten yrs) and they come in various lengths.

[pribich]

Intersting. I'm not familar with those but they are worth looking into. Thanks.

[rquackenbush]

Awesome Instructible!  I was lucky enough to get a sink / faucet for free.   If I hadn't, I would totally build one of these bad boys.

Soldering is a solid, traditional (if not a little messy) way to secure pipes.  If you're interested in keeping it super neat (or you don't happen to have solid pipe sweating skills like me) you could always use epoxy (I've used Copper Bond from Lowes before with no leaks). 

It comes out way neater than solder.

But hey - it's a utility sink so it doesn't really matter!

[pribich]

Good tip on using the epoxy. I have only a little expirence with soldering pipes. Someone who has done it a lot more could likely make the joints look much cleaner.

[annodomini2]

Interesting concept, you could use compression fittings if you're not confident with soldering. If you didn't want the industrial look you could clad with wood or some form of plastic. Maybe even plaster and mold it to the shape or design you want

[rquackenbush]

You could also use copper epoxy for the joins.  I wouldn't trust compression joints where they're going to get jostled whever someone turns a valve.

[pribich]

I like the idea of using plaster, it could allow you to come up with all sorts of cool sculptural designs.

[annodomini2]

Mind you, it would probably need to be sealed

[Padlock]

I imagine the plaster would crack when the hot water was turned on. The hot water wold cause the copper pipe to expand, which may or may not be significant enough to crack apart the plaster. If it didn't happen the first time, however, a stress fracture would eventually form.

[Padlock]

Hmm. I would have stained the base, or atleast painted it. And flipped the left valve 180 degrees. But that's just me and my unnatural need for everything to be symmetrical... Looks very good.

[mr hymn]

impressive and sorta steampunkish

[mdauld]

Great idea. If you replaced your tee fitting with a gator bite tee from the home store, you could rotate the arm out of the way when you need to put a big object in the sink. The gator bite fittings will easily rotate on the pipes and complete the junk yard rig feel of the project.

[pribich]

I really like that idea. I've used gator fittings with pex before. Do you know if it will work with copper piping?