Bulkhead fitting in float box?

[TunbridgeDave]

Our old SB flue pan has a leak in the float box where the supply pipe attaches to the bottom. It was made from a 1 1/2" brass thread/slip adapter with a short piece of copper soldered in it. The threaded part stuck through the bottom of the float box, and the short pipe sticks up for the shut-off. The assembly was of course just soldered into the hole. A galvanized union is used to connect the preheater to the pan and from years of taking it apart and putting it back together, the solder has cracked and I'm sick of fixing it. I was wondering if anyone has a better solution. I was thinking bulkhead fitting. I can't find one in brass and I'm not sure the plastic ones can take the 180 degree sap from the preheater. In a perfect world it would be welded with dairy fittings.

[maplwrks]

Dave--I know exactly what you have there. The SB rig that Iboiled on for 8 yrs was the same way. We had one of the guys from Leader in Rutland come to the suger house and fix it. The solution was to take that inlet out completely, and soldered a piece of stainless over the hole. We then cut a hole in the end of the floatbox to except a new float assembly. We put a new Leader float in it, but you could buy any new assembly that would fit your floatbox. Lapierre is using T valves in their float boxes now, and they work pretty good.