On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:18:34 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska
wrote:

Hul Tytus wrote:
If you have a socket with flat to flat distance suitable for the shower,
remove the unwanted flats with a bench grinder. Handy tools, those.


Rather than butcher a good deep socket I decided to try making one out
of steel tubing. The valve bonnet needn't be extremely tight since it
seals with gaskets (though of course it could be siezed) and in any case
the valve is suspended on the piping, which won't take a whole lot of
torque no matter how strong the socket is.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy to craft a socket out of 3/4"
thinwall conduit, flaring the tube on the horn of an anvil and hammering
in the flats. If it proves weaker than the piping support making a
stronger socket out of better-quality tubing promises to be quite easy.

Very similar to my solution to second son wanting a better tool to
operate the spare tire winch on his 2010 Grand Carravan. What was
required was a 1/2" sq. drive extension with a female end on both
ends. I took a length of 1/2" EMT and worked a modified 1/2' square
bar into each end -took all of ten minutes.

Perhaps this is why nobody bothers to sell sockets for this application;
they're easy enough to make. There are photos at
http://www.zefox.net/~bp/shower_valve/
in case anyone's curious.

To my relief (and some embarrassment) it was pointed out to me that the
tile on the back side of the shower wall stops below the shower valves.
If all else fails the valves can be replaced without disturbing the tile.

Thanks for reading, and everyone's counsel!

bob prohaska