Removing olives

[John Stumbles]

Simplest & cheapest approach would be (as others have suggested) using a junior hacksaw to cut through the olive almost parallel to the pipe until you can break it off with a screwdriver in the slot you've cut. The only thing I'd add to that us use a *good* junior hacksaw and *good* blades. Been there, done that .... having used el cheapo saws and blades and now using an Irwin

and half-decent blades I can assure you it makes a big difference. OK so you'll be spending over a fiver on this kit, but after the job you still have a useful decent junior hacksaw :-)

I've removed a lot of olives using this technique and it works, the only problem typically being actually getting access to work the hacksaw in a confined space and the remaining pipe tail possibly being too mangled by an over-tightened olive and/or valve twisted out of line with the pipe. A dollop of Boss White will make up for a lot of imperfection in the pipe, but if it's too bad you may have to cut back the pipe and solder on a new bit. For this you'll have to have the pipework draind right down, and if the pipes are buried in concrete that may mean sucking the water out with a wet vac.

[Toby]

I do, but have never used it in the way I have described here. I thought you would be far less likley to catch the pipe with this, as the contact area will be very small on a round disk (5mm ish), unluke a long Jr hacksaw blade (15cm), and the fact you will just need to tickle the olive would mean, Iwould think you were less likeley to slip, where as with a hacksaw, you need to put a *lot* more effort into it!

Toby...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I find it better to blow it through rather than suck, as it were. Assuming you have a device that can do this. I use the compressor from my HVLP spray set.

[Paul Matthews]

And then suddenly it snags on something and skips out of the slot onto the pipe...