Hydraulic Ram Pump

Step 3 Cut your Connecting Pipe Pieces

You need to connect each of these little units with some pipe, so set about cutting segments off of that stock 1-1/4" pipe with the hacksaw. They don't need to be long, just enough to reach all the way into each fitting, maybe with some space between. But not much!

Once these pieces are all cut, take your knife (or some sand paper) and try to smooth the inside edge of the pipe. Get all the burr off, clean it up, give it a nice bevel or rounded edge. The idea here is to make these as smooth as possible, to reduce the likelihood of cracks developing with the repeated pressure waves that occur inside the pipe. Clean up both ends, and make pieces to join all of the 1-1/4" fittings.

While you're at it, you might as well clean up the edges on the other sections of pipe, though it will be less critical for the other parts. Now that you've got all the connecting segments, you can actually test fit the first part of the pump together, just for fun.

Don't worry if the pipes seem rather tight when you're test fitting everything. The primer and cement help them go together when you do the real assembly.