DIY Discoveries?

[Rhythm Thief]

I just find them so difficult to use. Even my good quality one is crap, there's too much play in the jaws, which means that you have to adjust it every half turn of the nut. Fine if you can get to it, but when you're replacing taps on a bath (to pick an example close to my heart at the moment) and working with both hands under the bath, out of sight, while lying on your back on the bathroom floor ... I wish I'd just gone out and bought a 34 mm spanner, regardless of how much it cost. But I suppose sometimes they can have their uses.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I remember talking to a fitter one day when I was delivering to Triumph up at Hinkley. He was telling me that on his first day at the Triumph factory, years previously, teh foreman had come round and had a root through his tool box. On finding an adjustable spanner, he'd picked it up, said "follow me, lad" and walked straight across the factory to the scrap bin, into which he unceremoniously threw the spanner.

 

[4F]

, but when you're replacing taps on a bath (to pick an example close to my heart at the moment) and working with both hands under the bath, out of sight, while lying on your back on the bathroom floor ... I wish I'd just gone out and bought a 34 mm spanner, regardless of how much it cost. But I suppose sometimes they can have their uses.

You have my sympathy. That really is a god damn awful job and something that you need about 5 arms to do. And then you find there is not enough room to get any leverage on the spanner even if you have got one of those special unusual looking tap spanners.

I ended up taking the bloody bath out in the end just so I had room to get the taps tight enough so they did not move. A 1 hour job that turned into a weekend one !

 

[Rhythm Thief]

And then you find there is not enough room to get any leverage on the spanner even if you have got one of those special unusual looking tap spanners.

I used my favourite technique of cutting about four inches off the end of the spanner with a disc cutter. My toolkit contains a lot of bent, shortened and ground flat spanners now, all for specific jobs.

 

[swee'pea99]

That is a bugger of a job. And an example of where it does make sense to use good/adapted tools. Another would be spoke keys - as someone said hereabouts recently, cheap ones tend to round the nipples, so I grit my teeth and pay 11 squids for Park Tools version. I just get a bit antsy when people trot out the old 'never buy cheap tools' line - it's too glib and there's a hint of snobbery about it, to my ear. What's wrong with a cheap hammer? Or cheap fixed spanners? For most people's needs, they're fine.

 

[4F]

Yeah I have a couple of adapted spanners but this one poxy tap would just not play ball with whatever I tried until the bath came out .

The position of the toilet further hindered the issue

 

[benb]

Or you can just over-insert the screw without countersinking, then whack in a bit of caulk, give it a quick rub with some 240 paper and a lick of paint.

Great idea, especially when you need to unscrew it again.

 

[benb]

Measure twice, cut once.

 

[Moodyman]

The plumbing / DIY shop will have every size but the one you badly need.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Hammer, yes. But cheap spanners might as well be made of liquorice.
I suppose I come at this from the point of view ofd someone who does all his own servicing on both cars and bikes. My tools are not just left to gather dust most of the year, it's a rare day when I don't use them for something. But I take your point: if you're not forever elbow deep in engines then cheap spanners are probably fine.
I should say that I have a friend who is even more of a mechanic than me and he always buys cheap tools. Just lots of them.

 

[upsidedown]

My one concession to good tools are my two sets of Bondhus allen keys, as good as the day i bought them after much (bike) use.

 

[upsidedown]

Well, you could suggest that Mrs UD do it herself...

(speaking as a female, I think it rather pathetic that so many women still seem to have to wait for their man to do jobs like that)

I could, but the consequences would be too dire to contemplate.

 

[4F]

I could, but the consequences would be too dire to contemplate.

Good point, she would then probably find an alternative storage solution for your Bondhus allen keys

 

[Ivan Ardon]

When you've fought with a rusty bolt or nut and got it out after a struggle, don't use it again. Replace it with a new one covered in copper grease.

Stainless nuts and bolts cost pennies at Screwfix.

Take the filler plug out of a car gearbox before taking out the drain plug. That way, if you can't get the filler plug out, there's still some oil in the box.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Stainless nuts and bolts cost pennies at Screwfix.

This is true, but be careful where you use them. See http://www.springerlink.com/content/d8011178028606u5/ or just google "stainless steel fastener failure".