[T2] faucet

[Kevin Guarnotta]

Hi Jon,

Good ideas here. Thanks. 
The leak on the old one – is at the base of the faucet tube, ie the swivel joint. Unfortunately the faucets appear to be sort of pressed together in such a way that they cannot be taken apart. In other words, I don’t see any way to remove the outlet pipe. Does anyone know a way to take them apart?

I had been thinking of trying a HF tubing bender on it – they make one for bending ¼” to 3/8” tubing. I think the faucet tube is close to 3/8” diameter. 

-Kevin Guarnotta
Jamaica Plain, MA

’78 Westy
'69 Singlecab
'65 Ez-camper


From: Jon [mailto:scintilla_22 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 6:25 PM
Subject: faucet

Kevin,
	Bending the tube isn't going to help you as the first thing that will happen is the outlet is going to get much further down into the basin.  Second it is really tricky to move a bend down a tube without bending much more than you first intended.  It is doable but not easy.  Essentially you have to straighten the original bend some at the upper end first, then put more bend lower on the tube.  Chroming the pipe makes it more brittle and time hardens copper too.  (Brass is copper and zinc)  Really tricky to un-bend brass tubing in that state without kinking it.

My recommendations are

First. Take the old faucet apart and see if you can switch the outlet pipe with the new one.  The leak was proably in the valve, not the outlet pipe.

Second. See if the new outlet tube is straight, with a plain end, where it goes into the guts of the faucet.  If it is, it will be easy to cut off enough so the bend clears the lid of the cabinet.  

Third. If it isn't plain on the end where it goes into the faucet, it may be necessary to take it to someone who can shorten it, silver solder it back together, and have it re-chromed.  Someone in your area that repairs brass musical instruments could do it easily.

Not the easy fix you had hoped for, but that is the way to do it.  The spring tubing benders are really for new, soft, pure copper tubing which IS easy to bend.


jon