Putting tap into barell

Assuming it's a water butt, you get a small child to crawl inside the butt and hold the nut with a wrench, spanner, fingers, whatever, while you tighten from the outside. If no small child available, you have to crawl inside, yourself, tighten the nut as best you can, then continue tightening from the outside. I've done this on several occasions and always found that once the nut starts to get tight, there's usually enough friction to allow the tap to be tightened further without the need to restrain the nut inside.

Failing all that, use a mole wrench to grip the nut, and as the nut turns, the end of the wrench will come into contact with the bottom of the butt and won't turn any further, allowing the tap to be fully tightened. If the wrench isn't long enough to contact the butt bottom, slip a short length of pipe over it to extend it, or put a brick into the bottom of the butt for the wrench to hit.

All references here to butts and bottoms are purely in the context of water barrels.

:-))

The perfect answer! (From one who has done this himself a few times.)

John

The problem isn't tightening the tap to the connector, its tightening the connector to the wall of the 50 gallon sealed top barrel. I have no way of access to the fitting from the inside of the barrel

So how did you get the backnut on the inside of the barrel?

Which raises the question as to how the connector was fitted to the barrel wall in the first place. No matter, can you not un-seal the top of the barrel? Presumably not, (but there must be a lot of muck accumulated inside over the years).

In which case the last thing to try is to partially screw the tap onto the connector, then pull on it hard away from the barrel and try tightening the nut on the connector, hoping that you're creating enough friction between the nut inside the barrel and the barrel wall to stop it turning while the nut outside (not you, I hasten to add) gets some purchase.

Cut a "u" (or I_I if that comes out ok!) shaped slot in the end of a piece of scrap wood about a metre long which is just wide enough to fit over the plastic nut. Put it over the nut to hold it and turn the tap until it's fairly tight. Remove the wood and turn the tap until it's about 90 degrees from the correct position. Replace the wood and turn the tap to tighten it in the correct position.

Not easy, if they are deep and you cannot get inside as happened to me last year. I eventually solved it by using a pair of pipe grips, held onto the nut by using a strong elastic band round the handles, pulling them tightly together. Being plastic, the nut was tight-ish all the way down the threads. When it began to get tight, the grips span round and jammed against the bottom and I was able to fully tighten the tap. A long bar, flat at the end, allowed the grips to be pushed off the nut, then the barrel turned upside down to recover them.

It took two of us, several attempts, plus a few choice swear words.

Are you saying that the barrel is sealed, and that you therefore don't have access to the inside? If that's the case then investigate whether you could use an "Essex Flange", or improvise something similar.

Alternatively, make an access hole near to the tap hole, use the access hole to fix the tap, make a patch to go over the access hole and attach it with a suitable adhesive (solvent or PU would be my first thought, but it depends on the material the barrel and patch are made of).

Lowered a weight on piece of string. Fished it out via the hole cit for the tap. Threaded the fitting onto the cord and let it slide down inside the barrel then fished it out via the hole. Easier than it sounds

ok fair enough - it sounded like there were no other holes in the barrel from your description - but thinking about that, it would make for a very limited use barrel! :-)

In which case, as Chris described, you need to find a way to tension the fitting while you tighten the outer nut. That's the only way you will get some friction that might stop the inner spinning.

Saw a Youtube clip of someone installing a Poundland tap in a plastic barrel by cutting threads in the barrel wall and them threading the tap in.

My real problem is the barrel is used to store agricultural diesel. If it was just water I'd faff about till i got it sealed but I don't want the place covered in leaking diesel or even having to decant a quantity of diesel to effect a cure

Be aware that on farm diesel storage is required to be bunded to 110% of capacity. There are other limitations on proximity to surface water.

I presume the Russians didn't read that notice out in Siberia (20,000 *tonnes* of diesel leaked into a river, when the permafrost under the storage tank melted).

Yes. Messy! I don't think they are/were in the EU:-)

No, I used some sealant as well, but then I was not trying to store fuel in a water butt! Brian