The clear plastic towel bar in my bathtub is broken. That is a problem because the holders are installed like tiles in the tile wall, so they are not coming out easy. And I don't see how to get a new bar in without removing them.
Are replacement bars available? Any clever ideas for solving this? I am thinking of reinstalling the old bar and mending it with fiberglass when in place, but that is an awful lot of trouble. Or, I could put in a wooden bar with a lap joint; but that isn't much easier.
I've seen replacement stock in some of the bigger stores like Home depot and Lowes in the shower and bath section. You'll need to figure out how to loosen one of the holders to get the bar back in after you cut it to fit.
I think you missed his predicament. He wants to use the brackets that are already there, mounted as tiles on the wall, and replace only the bar between them.
Go and buy a replacement bar from a good supplier or you can get one at home depot.
Cut the bar to the proper length for your particular holders. Measure from the inside of one of the holder cups (the hole that the towel bar goes into) to the face of the other towel bar cup and add 1/4". The easiest way to do this is stick the towel bar in one side and mark where the other side reaches the holder, then add the 1/4". Cut the bar.
Turn your oven on as low as it will go. Place the bar in the oven, wrapped in tin foil for about 20 minutes. Using thick gloves or oven mitts, quickly remove the bar from the oven, place one end in one holder and warp the other end into the other holder. If you did everything right, you can hit the towel bar with some water or wipe with a wet rag to cool it down and you are done.
You can buy spring-loaded towel bars that will fit into the existing fixture like a toilet paper roll holder. They can be cut to length, and then spring-loaded end caps are installed.
Umm, that's what this product is intended to do, or didn't you look bother to look at the picture. It's the bar only, with a spring loaded end so it can be compressed and slid into place. Like a toilet paper roll holder.
Well, I think I've done something like this somewhere. Maybe I'll think of it and whether it is really like this. It might depend on what the opening in each holder is like. If it is conical that would make this harder. If it has a sharp corner and the sides of the hole are straight almost to the top of the hole, that would be good.
I would measure the distance A from the bottom of one hole to the inner edge of the other holder. (inner when looking at both holders at the same time. Outer edge when looking at only one holder) That's how long I would make the rod. It might have to be shortened a bit, later.
And the distance B from that inner edge to the bottom of the hole. That's how much space has to be filled either with something springy like foam rubber, or with something added later maybe through a syringe with a needle on the end, such as often included with inkjet refilling kits.
Open cell Foam rubber will compress to 20 or 10% of its normal thickness. When fully expanded, it's not very strong, but it's still worth doing it with that as the goal, because this only takes a few minutes. Take distance B, divide by 2, and make two pieces of foam rubber to fit in the holes, each B/2 thick.
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