Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything, blow
lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a section
of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very careful not to
damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
k...
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very
careful not to damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.


Yes I think so. I have a Dremel with loads of different attachments and have
found the cut-off wheels do work quite well on metals in "real" applications
like this, although I have broken loads and those that I haven't broken have
had a very high wear rate.

"rrh" wrote in message
.uk...

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
k...
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very
careful not to damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.


Yes I think so. I have a Dremel with loads of different attachments and
have found the cut-off wheels do work quite well on metals in "real"
applications like this, although I have broken loads and those that I
haven't broken have had a very high wear rate.

Spouse uses his for all manner of jobs. Yes, he's broken lots of bits and
today the power plant died but he reckons he's had very good value from them
and intends buying another.

Mary

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:57:48 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything, blow
lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a section
of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very careful not to
damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.

One tool to fit them is a fibre glass type cutting disk about 3cm in
diameter. One of those doing 5000rpm in a steady hand will kill most
things like you had.

On 2006-10-12 20:57:48 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very
careful not to damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done
the job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.

With brass, definitely and reasonably easily as well.

There are several types of cut off wheel, some harder and more
expensive than others.

The softer ones would do this job - they wear down in diameter fairly
quickly but are very inexpensive anyway - they come in plastic tubs of
quite a number (maybe 20 or so).

I use my Dremel quite a bit for these kind of jobs - another is cutting
copper tube in confined spaces in order to remove it.

You all beat me to the comments about the cheap thin but brittle abrasive
disks and the thicker but tough fibreglass ones. However yesterday I used
the first of my metal/diamond disks from Ebay and that worked very nicely
too (taking a crimped alloy cap off a glass perfume spray bottle). Real
Dremels are pricey but fortunately the clones aren't. I have a Tandy
cordless, a Draper mains, and another much smaller "engraver" that still
takes the disks. Don't need them often, but sometimes they are the only
thing that works fast in a tight space.

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:04:42 UTC, "Newshound"
wrote:

You all beat me to the comments about the cheap thin but brittle abrasive
disks and the thicker but tough fibreglass ones. However yesterday I used
the first of my metal/diamond disks from Ebay and that worked very nicely
too (taking a crimped alloy cap off a glass perfume spray bottle). Real
Dremels are pricey but fortunately the clones aren't. I have a Tandy
cordless, a Draper mains, and another much smaller "engraver" that still
takes the disks. Don't need them often, but sometimes they are the only
thing that works fast in a tight space.

I had to modify a lath and plaster wall (basically, truncate the laths
halfway across a stud). The Dremel did the job beautifully, using one of
the metal disks.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything, blow
lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a section
of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very careful not to
damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.


They're good for some small jobs, though IME cutoff wheels are the only
really useful accessory. Much easier than a hacksaw if you've got to
remove an olive from a pipe in a tight space.

--
Spamtrap in use
To email replace 127.0.0.1 with btinternet dot com

On 2006-10-12 20:57:48 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very
careful not to damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done
the job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.

Not particularly for this job, but I think another tool that you would
get a lot of value from as a handyman is a Fein Multimaster. I use
mine a huge amount for the jobs that are between Dremel capacity and
heavyweight specific power tools.

If you put one on your Christmas list I'll put in a word next time I'm
in Rovaniemi.

This week I saw my first hotel reception area with decorations, parcels
and a tree - all plastic of course. I crossed it off of my approved
hotels list.....

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.


The Aldi/Lidl/Netto will be back on the racks soon,keep your're beadies out
for one at 12.99GBP

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

In message , Newshound
writes
You all beat me to the comments about the cheap thin but brittle abrasive
disks and the thicker but tough fibreglass ones. However yesterday I used
the first of my metal/diamond disks from Ebay and that worked very nicely
too (taking a crimped alloy cap off a glass perfume spray bottle). Real
Dremels are pricey but fortunately the clones aren't.
Real Dremels aren't that pricey anymore. Got a Costco card?


--
Clint Sharp

"Chris Hodges" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow
lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section
of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very careful not
to
damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.


They're good for some small jobs, though IME cutoff wheels are the only
really useful accessory. Much easier than a hacksaw if you've got to
remove an olive from a pipe in a tight space.

solid carbide bit is very good for cutting holes in tiles - done 8/14
sockets/fcu light switches in the kitchen (10x8 tiles)

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything, blow
lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a section
of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very careful not to
damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.

I dont use one often, but when I do, nothing else will do. One thing
that can be uesful for difficult access jobs is to keep a very worn
down angle grinder metal cutting wheel. Being much smaller it can get
in spaces where whole wheels wont go. If a grinder wont get in there,
drilling into the metal can weaken it and almost cut it right through.

Have been disappointed by the pink grinding bits that come in various
shapes, load of crap, but the wire wheels are quite useful.


NT

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job?

Not as well as my Fein Multimaster would have done.

You're a jobbing handyman. You need one of these things!
I still don't know what it's for, I just keep using it for stuff.

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
k...
Hi

Had a bugger of a job today, changing the taps on a 30+ year old bath.

Backnuts (brass) for the taps seemed welded in place, tried everything,
blow lamp, hammer - you name it.

In desperation I managed to get a 4" angle grinder in and cut off a
section of the backnut. Difficult to get it in and I had to be very
careful not to damage anything else.

Would one of these Dremel type things with a cut off wheel have done the
job? I've always regarded them as a model making machine.

Probably. The main uses for dremels as far as I can see are the cut off
disks, and the amateur dentist bit that's mint for getting through seam
sealer on bolt heads...