After several plumbing quotes to change a leaking hot water tank I thought how difficult can it be and brought a replacement and will do it tomorrow. Its in a really tight location and the current tank has elbows between the 22mm pipe and the 1" fittings. my question is how do plumbers get theses elbows to orientate so that after tightening the 90 elbow to the tank the other end of the 90 points perfectly upwards, is there a trick im missing, do they apply a load of jointing compound and undo the fitting slightly to orientate, or do they sand the mating face down so when fully tightened it points where they need it?

Im puzzled?

I think just quantities of PTFE tape and just do up reasonably tight.

Have you got the fitting only the threaded part of the fittings are normally not part of the body of the bend and therefore you can orient as you like

Pete

get yourself some flexi fittings

http://www.screwfix.com/cats/101316/Plumbing/Flexible-Hoses

....and some Evo Stik 'Plumber's Mate'.

id go with PTFE, we use that to ensure outside taps point downwards

15 turns of PTFE per male thread. Push fit flexi's cannot be used in certain areas. Check :-
http://www.johnguest.com/litdown.asp

how old is the tank your replacing?

The really old tanks have a different pipe arrangement. I had that problem a couple of months back. Check your pipe sizes of the new and old tank.

is it all done now ??
just wondered how you got on ??