Opening radiator steam traps - question for Gordon Schweizer or anyone else

PEvans · January 4

I have seen Gordon's excellent Youtube videos on rebuilding radiator steam traps. I have completed many of mine but now I'm getting to the ones with stubborn caps.

To get the cap off, in one video he recommends using a breaker bar with a backing wrench on the trap body, and in another he recommends using an impact driver.

The first is fine if you have two people, which is usually not the case.

Should I worry about breaking the trap body or the piping if I use an impact driver or a breaker bar without a backing wrench?

(FWIW my radiator traps are nearly all Hoffman 17C "old style")

Steamhead · January 4

@PEvans said: "Should I worry about breaking the trap body or the piping if I use an impact driver or a breaker bar without a backing wrench?"

YES!!! Ask me how I know that……………….

mattmia2 · January 4

if you arrange the handles the right way one person can use a breaker bar and backup wrench

EBEBRATT-Ed · January 4

Keep the wrenches together with maybe 4-6" between the handles all you have to do is crack it loose. You will get more leverage that way.

Yes , you could break a pipe.

PEvans · January 4

Thanks, everyone.

@EBEBRATT-Ed I'm worried about the 1-3/8 socket slipping off the nut on the cap. I feel like I need one hand to hold it down on the nut.

No one recommending an impact driver?

mattmia2 · January 4

you can grind down the end of the socket to take the bevel off of it, it will give it more grip on shallow fasteners.

Mad Dog_2 · January 5

Scissor bite with opposing wrenches. Wear some deerskin work gloves so you dont slip and need stitches. Mad Dog

Larry Weingarten · January 5

Hi, I've used the opposing wrenches trick, but try putting the ends of the wrenches very near each other, then use a third tool as a lever or prybar between the wrenches. This gives you good mechanical advantage. Also use a socket, ground down as @mattmia2 suggests, but use a six point variety. You'll win 🥳

Yours, Larry

PEvans · January 5

Great stuff here. Thanks everyone.

guzzinerd · January 5

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1880847#Comment_1880847

I bought a cordless impact driver for rebuilding the 30 traps in my building. They hadn't been touched for 90 years. Made the job very quick and easy, zero mishaps.

mattmia2 · January 5

you can probably buy a corded one if you're just going to use it very occasionally for stuff like that(although if i had a cordless impact wrench i would use it a lot more than i use my pneumatic one)

WilliamGwiazdowski · January 6

Last year when I opened up the Webster traps here, I was able to get the correct size socket on the hex and use my 24-in 1/2-in drive breaker bar and they all popped free no problem, I don't know when they were last opened up though, however it's been at least 30 years.

Corktown · January 6

I had a Hoffman 17C trap whose cover would not come off. With some heat and an adjustable wrench, I got the cap off, but in doing so, I bent the trap body or the cap slightly out of round. So I “second that emotion” of using a six point socket.

You’ll get more force, spread more evenly around on the cap if you do so. You wouldn’t hand tighten a pipe into a fitting using your fingers (call that “12 point”), you’d wrap your whole hand around it and tighten it using your palm (“6-point”), wouldn’t you?

In regard to impact wrenches, I talked a company into selling me an eight-point special order socket to get the squarehead plug out of my Weil-McLain boiler. I sweet-talked them into selling me just one, not 20!

It took me about two minutes to get that socket off, in place since 1994, and I didn’t have to take the boiler jacket off to do so.

No matter what you do, as the pros have advised previously, you need a wrench on the exit piping to counteract the torque that you’re putting on the trap cover head, imho ….

Corktown · January 6

To clarify, I had 400-500-ish pounds of boiler acting as the “counter-wrench” when I used that impact socket! ….

PEvans · January 6

I do have a 3/4 inch drive six-point socket of the correct size and a 3/4 drive breaker bar.

@WilliamGwiazdowski I think you had it easy.

ratio · January 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1881017#Comment_1881017

The telecom industry uses 4 point sockets. I bought one a few months back, ½ drive ¾ square IIRC, got it on eBay.

EBEBRATT-Ed · January 7

When you put the caps back on a little Never Seize won't hurt. Just use a little bit

ethicalpaul · January 7

In regard to impact wrenches, I talked a company into selling me an eight-point special order socket to get the squarehead plug out of my Weil-McLain boiler. I sweet-talked them into selling me just one, not 20!

8 point? Why not 4-point? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQGWPNSM

hot_rod · 4:03AM

Back in the 1960 Snap On came out with Flank Drive sockets they have a slight round at all the points. This allows more torque to be put on the flats instead of the points of a hex bolt or fitting.

Similar to what @ethicalpaul shows

Later they made Flank Drive open end wrenches

A Flank Drive 6 point impact would be worth looking for

Corktown · 4:41AM

@ratio and @ethicalpaul,

Good to know about the ‘4-points’. At the time, I think I looked, but couldn’t find any.

Of course, inside an 8-point is a 4-point waiting for its time to shine. And it did! ….

109A_5 · 5:13AM

If you are using a breaker bar in a tight place an 8 point (Double-Square) socket may work when a 4 point will not. Its about the variety of usable angles between the square socket drive and the working end of the socket.

Opening radiator steam traps - question for Gordon Schweizer or anyone else

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