John, you're absolutely right.
Alternatively the engineer could have gripped the body of the elbow rather
than the crushable female thread. OR, even attaching a foot or two of spare
pipe to the female thread and used that instead of clamps to create more
torque and twist the elbow off the valve.

I may even have a case against BG to say that the engineer was negligent.

Richard

"John" wrote in message
...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
.uk...

"Colin Wilson" wrote in message
t...
See how the engineer has hacksawed the first few mil off the inner
thread,
to try and get it to fit

Yup, this seems to be the key to the puzzle.

It wasn't one of those "could have happened to anyone" moments, he
deliberately took a hacksaw to it.


Why cut a few millimetres off the thread? Why not pack it with fibre or
neoprene washers to make it tight? Seems really silly, to me anyway,
not
to
try and place a couple of washers in the fitting, or even sealant
solution
around it, then tighten it back into place. Weird engineers now'a'days.


I can envision our BG bloke gripping the elbow with a pair of water pump
pliers and trying to unscrew it from the body of the gas valve thus
crushing
the female end then after bashing it about a bit cutting off the crushed
bit. I've taken a sup[erficial look over my scrap heap but nothing there
I'm
afraid (although I will ask a couple of mates if they have one).
IIRC the female end is a parallel thread and the pipe to the burner has an
olive and a captive threaded clamping (male thread) collar so I am
guessing
that the remants of the female thread are now too short to engage the
clamping collar.
Why oh why didn't he use a small vice or even (incorrectly but less risk
of
damage) a pair of stilson jaws or a monkey wrench sideways accross the
solid
part of the body? This problem is entirely unneccessary when you think
about
it. :-(