I want to tighten a chrome plated hexagonal nut on a central heating radiator valve without marking it in anyway. (Part of a so called designer fitting.)
Any suggestions as to the best ways of doing this? I was considering getting a spanner of the right size and if possible using some thin paper between the spanner and the fitting.
Mike, try a fabric or leather strap wrench like you'd use on an oil filter on a car.
Chris
Mike, try a fabric or leather strap wrench like you'd use on an oil filter on a car.
Chris
Use a spanner a millimetre oversize and wrap a bit of Fairy Liquid bottle around the nut. Or wrap a bit of old leather belt around the nut and use Mole grips or a Stilson wrench.
Surely a ring spanner of the right size will not mark the nut under normal amounts of torque? The force will be distributed more evenly than with an open ended spanner or wrench-plus-material-between-jaws.
Heck of a job to get a ring spanner off a pipe fitting once all is connected!
What nut is it? If it's the one that goes between the valve and the rad., then just get a well-filling spanner with smooth jaws that fits well (even a good adjustable!), and make sure that it really *does* fit well (your adjustable is adjusted properly, you could even take it apart and polish the jaws!), and that the inside of the fitting is *clean*, and that the thread is lightly lubricated with vaseline, and that the "cone" of the "cup and cone" of the joint is clean, blemish-free, and has a bit of vaseline lovingly wiped onto it, and that the joint lines up properly, and just do the thing up finger-tight, and nip it up with your glittering adjustable. These things should *not* need swinging on, just a nip is OK. Remember - "You cannot make a watertight joint *more* watertight".
Apols., I forgot to mention:
You have had recommendations to use a soft packing piece between the nut and jaws of the doing-up thing. This is *not* on, as the soft thing *will* go through, then the loading upon the very point of the nut will be *greatly* increased, and the chrome will be shgged.
It's all right if you can get it on, but afterwards you might not be able to have it off.
Oversized open ended spanner with two small pieces of plywood in the jaws.
Why do you not want to mark it?
Because it's a "*chrome plated* hexagonal nut", I assume on show?
heating
under normal
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ROFLO!!!!!!
Won't matter if he buys enough ring spanners.
wood slips have always worked well for me. But if the wood begins to break through, stop, release pressure, or it'll mark. Obvious nuff really. Hardboard generaly works, ditto formica, thin ply can split.
NT
All these crazy ideas. If the spanner is the correct size and of suitable quality and the nut is not done up by a ham-fisted gorilla it will not be marked anyway.
It's not like it's made of wax or anything.
In my expereince the fastest way to mark a nut is using mole grips
I'd go with your orignal idea.
Rick
have to disagree, it /is/ made of /something/
Difficult to use a ring spanner where pipes are involved...
Use a good quality tight fitting spanner whose jaws are as wide as the nut to spread the load.
Trouble is any soft material is likely to allow the spanner to rotate and damage the edges of the nut.
You could try one of those rubber strap wrenches, but I'm not sure it could provide enough torque.
I'd go for aluminium. That's the traditional materiel for soft jaw vices.
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