Roger Mills wrote:

Wherever possible, I initially made the joints 'off-line' by holding the
valve body in a vice while doing up the compression nut. On numerous
occasions I found that after doing up the nut with a 15" adjustable spammer,
using far more torque than *felt* [1] right, if I took it apart again the
olive would still rotate fairly freely on the (copper) pipe.

Is this what usually happens, or was I doing something wrong?

Some lubrication often helps - I usually use a small amount of PTFE on
the fitting just to aid tightening - saves the joint making that nasty
squeaking noise as you go as well!

I also have a big adjustable spanner that is sort of crossed with a mole
grip style locking mechanism. You wind it down to size like normal - but
then squeezing the extra side handle locks it on the nut.

--
Cheers,

John.

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