Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 Oct 20, 2015 3:53 pm My house has a number of Irwell taps about 30 years old. To replace the valve one needs a square (not hexagonal) tubular box spanner that is small enough to fit the 19.5mm square shank on the spindle. My old spanner has split but the only square box spanners I can find in the hardware, plumbing and tool shops I have tried so far are too large at 24mm or 25mm, not the 20mm I need. Does anyone have any suggestions where I will find one? I live in Melbourne. Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 2Oct 20, 2015 10:03 pm The plumbing shops (tradelink, reece etc) will be able to order you one. Check out the Haron international website - They stock a lot of tap spanners. If you dont find joy there, I would try fix-a-tap My build with FHBD viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78344 Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 3Oct 21, 2015 5:17 pm Thanks for the information, Daz. I had tried Reece, Mitre 10, Bunnings, Masters, Just Tools, Centre Plumbing, and Tapware Centre. Reece had no solution to suggest despite being a major specialist supplier. After your post I looked at Haron International International and Fix-a-tap websites, which both had many spanners shown but again no 20mm square. I have found that Irwell is now part of Stylus which is a GWA Bathrooms brand. I have emailed them for advice. We'll see! Thanks again. Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 4Oct 22, 2015 10:07 am They come up for sale every now and then on ebay. I bought a bundle of old plumbing spanners a while back on ebay for $10 plus postage. They were a mix of metric and imperial sizes. Just something to consider if you don't have any luck anywhere else. Stewie Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 5Oct 22, 2015 2:04 pm Thanks, Stewie. Yes, the second-hand market is probably the best shot now. Besides eBay, some Sunday markets have old handtool sellers. Irwell came back to me and did not have any suitable spanners. If I were metalworker I might know how to make one myself, but I'm not! Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 6Oct 26, 2015 1:00 am just locking grips on the spindle body! Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 7Oct 26, 2015 11:37 am Thanks, rebuilder86. Yes, using a grip wrench on the spindle was what I had to do after my spanner broke. However some of the spindles are very tight. The force I had to use with the wrench to bite into the thin brass spindle body was so great that there was risk of distorting the spindle bodyand ruining the whole spindle, hence my preference to use a spanner. Re: Plumbing: Square box spanners for tap repairs 8Oct 31, 2015 5:36 pm Hi mate not sure if to late with this question but if not here is my 2 cents worth. As a plumber i do come across this a bit. By sounds you cant use a shifter on the spindle end. So for the price of new set of spindles and by the time you replace the tap washer and service the spindle. Just use some footprints or similar and rip them out and change over with new as if there really tight you may squash the body. Less rooting around and last lot longer Does anyone have a suggestion for a good hydronic in slab heating speacialist who may be able to help me with an existing system and wether or not it may need a seperator… 0 3448 Depends... Brick veneer required the window to be attached to the house frame, this is usually achieved by screwing through the timber reveal into the frame. There are… 1 4611 No idea about the driveway question, but your price for a house that size including landscaping seems very good! 1 3938 |