how does this undo?

[Paul Herber]

Hi all, does anyone know how these fittings undo? I can see nothing that gives me a clue. I've tried rotating, unscrewing, pulling, pushing. There is no grub screw ...

Many thanks.

[nothanks]

I've seen similar things attached by dowel screws (AKA bolt hangers, I think); try putting a bit more ooomph into the unscrewing efforts. I would try gas (slip jaw) pliers with rag between the jaws and the "thing". Alternatively, perhaps there's an end cap that can be prized out?

[mark.bluemel]

I'd think the dowel screw suggestion is probably accurate. Perhaps it was "enhanced" with a touch of superglue or similar. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't at least intended to unscrew.

[Rob Morley]

I expect there's a threaded spigot screwed to the wall and the rest was screwed onto that. Then the thread seized and the spigot turned on its screw ... brute force may be your only option. Angle grinder?

[Paul Herber]

No, nothing at all.

[Paul Herber]

Not a case of putting more oomph into the unscrewing, it does rotate, but just goes round and round ... There are 3 of these items, all act the same.

[Paul Herber]

It was installed long ago by a person unknown.

[Paul Herber]

Maybe, there are three of them, this is the good one, the other two are holding up a bathroom shelf but hanging down by five degrees, if I can undo one, I can maybe undo the others. They all look exactly the same, all rotate when they are turned, no sign of how they are fixed.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Paul Herber formulated on Friday :

If they are all turning, then I would suggest there is a screw or bolt down the middle, with a cap pushed in from the end to hide the fixing. The cap might even be screwed into place.

[Tim+]

So very very well concealed. ;-)

To be honest, I can?t think of another explanation. It seems inconceivable that they were designed to be unremovable without destroying them therefore a simple method must exist.

Tim

[DerbyBorn]

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news:pmu7k5$md0$ [e-mail]:

+1 - or any way along the length.

[Andy Burns]

try pushing into it while unscrewing, like a medicine bottle top

[Brian Gaff]

Yes cannot see it of course but collet devices are annoying. Brian

[Bill Wright]

Maybe you hold the tile and pull the fitting hard.

Bill

[nothanks]

Sacrifice one so you can save the other two ... ?

[newshound]

That would be my guess too.

[Dave W]

I'm surprised that these three hold up a glass shelf. It would rock if they weren't quite in line. Surely there should only be two of them?

I would think that the outermost disc unscrews from the rest, revealing a screw that goes into the wall. If so the disc will be seized up and require some force to unscrew.

There may even be a spring toggle behind the wall, so perhaps you should try maintaining a pull away from the wall while unscrewing, so that the friction between the toggle and the tile stops it turning while the pillar screw unscrews off it.

[T i m]

I know you said there was no grub screw but is that a hole I can see in the top of the third ring? Nothing you press-to-release in there (if it is a hole)?

Cheers, T i m

[Tricky Dicky]

Are you sure there is no hole anywhere near the base, if so it may be full of clag concealing the grub screw. We have a toilet roll holder and a coupl e of soap holders fitted with protruding plain bars. They attach to the wal l by a couple of plain CSK screws with a dished washer, a small pointed gru bscrew holds the fitting in place by tightening up behind the dished washer .

Richard

[Peter Parry]

Possibly a combined screw and bolt such as

The screw part goes into a Rawlplug type wall fixing, the bolt into the sticking out metal bit. In bathrooms in particular the threaded part eventually corrodes and seizes in the metal part so that won't undo at all. The screw goes into a wall plug but over years of weight being put on the shelf and being taken away again the wall fixing starts to wobble in the hole and when it comes to unscrewing the wall plug simply rotates in the wall.

If it is a plastic wall plug you might try using a blowlamp on the metal part (not the tiles) in the hope the heat conducts along the metal and melts the plastic wall plug. You need a fair amount of heat. If it is a fibre (original Rawlplug type) or metal fixing this won't work of course but you won't find out until you try it.

If its got to the rotating without coming out at all stage about the only thing which might work (if heat doesn't) is to use a Dremel type tool with a metal cutting disc to cut the metal part away flush with the tile and try knocking the support back into the wall a bit so you can fill the hole and try to match the colour as well as you can.