Stubborn ancient bib tap

[JohnW2]

It's still a while before I'm going to be reunited with the tap again (my greatest hopes still being in 'heat') but, in the meantime, I've found a photo which gives a little insight into the 'access' problem (restriction on getting decent length pipes onto a spanner, as below.

I'm reunited with tap now, but I've not got very far yet.

As the photo in my previous post probably illustrated, I really can't get a pipe of any appreciable length onto the spanner (and be able to move it!).

Lots of WD40 and heat has not helped. The only spanners I have which will fit are adjustable ones, and I'm worried that my efforts are probably getting close to 'rounding off' the corners of the hex. Also, although I've been trying to keep direct heat from my blowlamp away from the body of the tap, it's now dripping more, so I fear that I'm melting the washer - and I cannot unscrew the top of the tap to replace the washer any more than I can unscrew the tap itself!

As for what, @Elkato531 previously wrote:

Probably sealed with hemp and paste which has set like concrete. It will go if you get enough leverage. I would put a decent stilson wrench on the tap body. That vertical pipe isn't going anywhere so have your weetabix first and go for it

Unfortunatel, I don't really have a 'decent stilton wrench''. The only one I have is about 12", and getting even that onto the body in a position where I can move it is quite a challenge. ... and as for "that vertical pipe isn't going anywhere", it is certainly trying to in my more Weetabix-inspired moments - to the extent that my efforts have already loosened the connections to the basin tap!

Any more thoughts/ideas? Is there anyone out there in the Portsmouth area who has a big wrench that fits into small spaces (or some other suitable tool)?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Eureka!!!! .....

Goodness knows how many hours this has taken me, but I've got there, with a sort of Weetabix approach.

Even after much more WD40 and much more heat, feeding Weetabix to me didn't seem to help. I therefore decided to feed it to a club hammer and then hit the hell out of the end of my little stenson. I was frightened that it would snap, but fortunately it didn't, and, very slowly, just a few degrees at a time it eventually unscrewed, but even that unscrewing process probably took half an hour!

Having got it off, there's no obvious explanation for the difficulty. There was a little but of hemp/horse hair/whatever at the tap end of the thread, but the threads (both of tap and the Tee seemed 'clean', with no sight of anything resembling concrete. Anyway, now I've won, I'm not going to waste too much time speculating about the reason for the difficulty!

Thanks to all of yopu who took an interest in this annoying little problem!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Deleted member 267285]

Eureka!!!! .....
View attachment 307157
Goodness knows how many hours this has taken me, but I've got there, with a sort of Weetabix approach.

Even after much more WD40 and much more heat, feeding Weetabix to me didn't seem to help. I therefore decided to feed it to a club hammer and then hit the hell out of the end of my little stenson. I was frightened that it would snap, but fortunately it didn't, and, very slowly, just a few degrees at a time it eventually unscrewed, but even that unscrewing process probably took half an hour!

Having got it off, there's no obvious explanation for the difficulty. There was a little but of hemp/horse hair/whatever at the tap end of the thread, but the threads (both of tap and the Tee seemed 'clean', with no sight of anything resembling concrete. Anyway, now I've won, I'm not going to waste too much time speculating about the reason for the difficulty!

Thanks to all of yopu who took an interest in this annoying little problem!

Kind Regards, John

With hands now like a plumbers’ too!

 

[JohnW2]

With hands now like a plumbers’ too!

Probably more like woodworkers' hands (I won't say "carpeenters' ", since real one would probably only rarely use glue!)( - most of what you can see on my hand is dirty PU woodworking glue that has been stuck on for the past week or two

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Probably more like woodworkers' hands (I won't say "carpeenters' ", since real one would probably only rarely use glue!)( - most of what you can see on my hand is dirty PU woodworking glue that has been stuck on for the past week or two

I've just noticed - far worse than the 'dirty PU glue' on my hands, in that piccie you can see a large patch of (totally irremovable) fairly clean 'set' PU glue just above the knee of my 'working trousers'

Kind Regards, John

 

[Deleted member 267285]

I've just noticed - far worse than the 'dirty PU glue' on my hands, in that piccie you can see a large patch of (totally irremovable) fairly clean 'set' PU glue just above the knee of my 'working trousers'

Kind Regards, John

Tbh, I thought it was adhesive or wood shavings, thought nothing of it!

 

[JohnW2]

Tbh, I thought it was adhesive or wood shavings, thought nothing of it!

Wood shavings would blow off. That glue is going to be there until those 'working trousers' eventually fall apart and have to be 'replaced'

Kind Regards, John

 

[Elkato531]

Well done. Sometimes leverage plus lump hammer is necessary.
BTW, I always have a good gloop of glue (solvent cement) or silicon on my work trousers. Gives me something to pick at instead of my nose at traffic lights

 

[JohnW2]

As I said, I still don't understand what was the explanation for the hours of effort it took me to unscrew the tap, since there was certainly no 'evidence' of any likely culprit when I eventually got it off.

I had expected that if any of the techniques we have been discussing eventually achieved just a very slight movement of the tap, that would have 'cracked any concrete' after which unscrewing would be relatively easy. However, what I actually experienced was far from that. With my club hammer and little stilson I had to (very tediously) unscrew it 4 or 5 complete revolutions, a few degress 'per blow', before it became loose enough to unscrew with just a hand-held spanner- which is why the unscrewing took about half any hour.

Anyone got any ideas about an 'explanation'?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

I had expected that if any of the techniques we have been discussing eventually achieved just a very slight movement of the tap, that would have 'cracked any concrete' after which unscrewing would be relatively easy. However, what I actually experienced was far from that. With my club hammer and little stilson I had to (very tediously) unscrew it 4 or 5 complete revolutions, a few degress 'per blow', before it became loose enough to unscrew with just a hand-held spanner- which is why the unscrewing took about half any hour.

I can now add that the new fitting ( a **" M/M/F Tee) screwed in incredibly easily (to the extent that I had to use more PTFE tape than I would have expected) So there's certainly nothing wrong with the thread of the existing fitting, nor any residual 'concrete. Remembering that this is a very temporary measure, what i have now got (which is what I have ben trying to achieve) is:

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

.....Remembering that this is a very temporary measure, what i have now got (which is what I have ben trying to achieve) is:
View attachment 307182

How bloody stupid can one (I) get>?

I was so obsessed with the need to be able drain that 'vertical pipe above' (because it goes somewhere where the could be a very significant risk of freezing) that I included that drain cock, even though there would have been a tap there even without it !

However, having done it, I'm going to leave it there, not only because the whole thing is temporary but also because it actually had ('convenience') 'upside' - the female end of that M/M/F Tee is actually a 'tap connector', which made it easier to get the tap upright than would hjave been the case had I been having to play around with varying amounts of PTFE tape!

However, I now have a new problem, concerning a related issue (the tap in the basin above), about which I'll start a new threadshortly!

Kind Regards, John