Or the "use a bigger wrench" award.... about two months ago I was trying to replace a water pressure regulator in my mom's house and 30 years of crud had frozen a threaded fitting. After drilling a hole in the side of the fitting and inserting a rod in the hole to allow the wrench to get a solid purchase on the fitting, I eventually worked my way up to using an 18 inch long wrench. it then seemed that I could just barely budge it if I hung on the wrench and "bounced" my weight against it. After I got about 90 degrees of rotation out of it and it was still frozen solid, I became suspicious. The rest of the (copper) pipe was covered in insulation - I removed the insulation and to my horror saw that I had twisted the pipe 90 degrees where it went into the next joint. This had kinked the pipe and I had to break out the propane torch, go buy some copper pipe and fittings, and replace the whole section :) On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 8:33 PM, RussellMc wrote: >> And the Three Hour Tour award goes to ..... Joe, for turning a >> 5-minute bearing replacement into a Saturday marathon, by not >> realising one awkward-to-get-to bush was also left-hand thread > > Not as coveted as the "I KNEW I could get this engine apart if I > levered it hard enough" award, awarded shortly prior to finding out > that, whereas (N-1)/N of the case bolts were external to the case, 1/N > of them was inside the opening where the barrel had been removed from > (this tending to be a motorcycle engine related award) and that the > casting's failure to resist prying is the cause of the aforesaid > award. Extra points for the casting being made of unweldableinium. > > > =A0 =A0R > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .