Removing cylinder valves

nmanfield

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Genesis

Wow.

I've never had valves hard to get out. Then again they're not supposed to be cranked on that hard in the first place! The seal is made with the O-ring, not the torque. You just need to seat the shoulder of the valve on the tank so the O-ring can't extrude under pressure.

I guess its one of the joys of doing it myself.

Hope you managed to get 'em out.....

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nmanfield

No joy I'm afraid they are sitting back in the UK waiting for me to have the opportunity to have enough time to apply the very helpful advice everyone has given me. They are brand new so I don't think that it's a rusting / o ring problem. Off to Budapest thi weekend - don't supposed anyone knows if I can buy them there do they?

Regards and thanks,

Nick

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sadave

Sorry to hear you didn't get them off.

Having previously worked in a hydro station (who's the dump ***** that made the laws in oz? Annual visual AND hydro testing??? ) here in Oz, its a LOT easier to remove valves with the right tools.

What Karl has said is right, they should only be done up hand tight, with a slight slap to cinch it up. And it should be that easy to remove them too. Having said that, some people like taking them off themselves, and tightening them up themselves... I once copped abuse from a customer for not having done his valve up properly. It took me ten minutes to get the bloody thing off...

In the shop, we had a vice with two bits of angle welded onto it, these both had thick rubber glued on to them. The angle was 3" each "side", and welded to make a diamond shape when closed up. Tanks sit perfectly in there, you can then insert the valve tool as per Phi's post, and its usually pretty simple.

If you don't have this luxury, in my toolkit I used (someone else obviously thought it was a great idea, and that they needed it more than me ) to have a great tool, it was a handle, that had a webbing loop through it, kinda similar design to oil filter wrench, but adjustable, and with webbing. Wet the webbing, cinch it up tight, and it is perfect for in-field cylinder holding... wish I could find another one!!!

Good luck, and enjoy!!!

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decoweenie

That gave me a thought...

Nick, find a bar/pipe about 10-12" long. Secure it to your valve via the most secured means (but easily removed afterward). In a bind, a long adjustable wrench should work as well.

Then do the roll as described in my post above. It should break the valve off.

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davepinchin

LoL... I have a simpler solution... using O2 and a box of matches... that will get the valves off

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