Ancient shower taps through masonry block wall

[shedfooting]

My taps in an old shower might be 50+ years old. They require a square tube spanner to remove. I cannot get in to measure the square at the base. I want to make a tube spanner to remove these taps. Can you tell me what size tube spanner might fit please?

[droog]

24mm is fairly common but there are 25 and 29mm as well

6pc Tap tube spanner set Square and Hex plumbers kit - Robson'''s Tool King Store

[ErrolFlynn]

Why make one when they are available to buy?

I have a unit that I believe is about 50 years old. The taps needed a square tube socket to remove. I went to Mitre 10 and bought a suitable spanner which included a 24 mm sq on one end and 21 mm hex on the other end. The square end fitted and I got the tap off. The lever bar was only 100 mm long. I had to grab a spanner to wrap around the bar in order to get some extra leverage in order to get it off.

The washer I fitted (from Mitre 10) split after about a month. You might be better off going to a plumbing shop for everything.

Those old taps are so easy to clean up. You can separate (unscrew) the shaft from the tap body easily enough and clean it (I used steel wool and rubbed the shaft gently), replace the o-ring, lube it up and pop it all back together (or just buy a new tap, but if you do, the dimensions might not be the same).

[Wrongwayfirst]

Why make one when they are available to buy?

I have a unit that I believe is about 50 years old. The taps needed a square tube socket to remove. I went to Mitre 10 and bought a suitable spanner which included a 24 mm sq on one end and 21 mm hex on the other end. The square end fitted and I got the tap off. The lever bar was only 100 mm long. I had to grab a spanner to wrap around the bar in order to get some extra leverage in order to get it off.

The washer I fitted (from Mitre 10) split after about a month. You might be better off going to a plumbing shop for everything.

Those old taps are so easy to clean up. You can separate (unscrew) the shaft from the tap body easily enough and clean it (I used steel wool and rubbed the shaft gently), replace the o-ring, lube it up and pop it all back together (or just buy a new tap, but if you do, the dimensions might not be the same).

what he said and once the water is turned off turn the shower tap “on” to make it easy to undo.
cheers

[shedfooting]

Thankyou to all who helped me.

The job has now been carried out.

The reason I did not seek to buy a tube spanner was that I live 40km from town, and secondly, having checked out ebay, I was pretty sure that the tube spanners on ebay would not have been long enough. Our little house was built in the 1950's I think, by a bricklayer who built it for himself as a holiday shack by the beach. Construction is double brick cavity wall, with plumbing located in the cavity. The combination arrangement is located in the cavity, and this required taps of amasing (to me) length. By trial and error I managed to determine that the square spanner base on the taps was one inch, so I made up a long tube spanner from four lengths of 25 X 5 flat steel.
Hopefully I can add a photo here
By the way, I spent 14 years as a home handyman doing repairs for property managers in rental homes. I would have done thousands of leaking tap repairs, but never came across taps of this length. IMG_2170.jpg

[droog]

Good job,

Wow never seen spindles like those before.

[ian]

24mm is fairly common but there are 25 and 29mm as well

6pc Tap tube spanner set Square and Hex plumbers kit - Robson'''s Tool King Store

If the old taps are really 50 years old, they should be an imperial size, not metric.

24mm would be a close match for 15/16"
29mm a close match for 1-1/8"

Given you can't get into the wall far enough to measure, I suggest you buy the correct size imperial tube spanner from a supplier who will allow you to return any wrong size ones.


let us know how you get on

[rwbuild]

let us know how you get on

Ummm....post #5 Ian

[ian]

[FONT=Verdana]

Ummm....post #5 Ian

My post crossed with yours



thanks for the update

[ErrolFlynn]

It's a beauty. If there were a plumbers' museum, that tap should be one of the exhibits.