Bear with me, I'm really new to Blender so trying my best. But, the easiest and fastest way, is just like you're doing it. Fewer. Step one, two similar pipes. Make sure that they align. step two, Boolean, Union. Clean up wherever it messes up. step three. Add the support loops. step four. Subdivide/Turbosmooth. Sides on…
Isn't that a rehash of a tut that JordanW (Mutantspoon) made? IIRC, his didn't have as many steps? =\ Still nice to know another way of doing something :) thx.
logosm, By 'ribs' I assume you mean the vents? If so, here is one way to start. There are more steps, but you should be able to figure out the rest from this.
@ikokane to do the last step, select the text faces, hold ctrl, and click the vert sub-object mode to convert the face selection into a vert selection. then hit connect.
i think the original one is on a curved surface, so i just did it on a curved surface and recorded all the steps i did as a JI https://gfycat.com/LinearMadKoodoo
GCMP: Never heard of the Array tool in Max? You can replace your "seventh step" with that. Don't bother manually copying it 45 times and snapping stuff, just type the values in...
I remember trying to do a lavatory pan when I was making my first steps in modelling. Ended up doing a very angular seat lol. It will be fun to revisit a year later.