stuck fittings

Avenged7Fold

Avenged7Fold

Avenged7Fold

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2012
Posts
11,704
Location
Surrey
My new acrylic compression fittings are stuck together. They were delivered like this and am struggling to get them apart. Have tried pliers and all sorts.

Anyone have any method for seperating them?

Its driving me nuts. Any tips on how to unscrew them from eachother?

Cant return them for new ones, as i need this to finish a build which will be on display Friday and likely id receive my replacements screwed together and jsut as stiff to undo.

I have 6 to sort out and have not manage one!
 
Tried it, unfortunately it didn't help. My last resort trick is usually to put them in a clamp or vice and use an air duster to drop temps, then use pliers to get them un-done, unfortunately, don't fancy trying this on 6 fittings (if one doesnt work, then i will still need to order new fittings and tubing as the tubing is 12 OD rather than EK's 13mm OD). I am afraid these will have to go back and EK non compression triple O-ring versions will have to replace them. I liked the idea of compression fittings on acrylic but EK's acrylic fittings are pretty secure as-well.

May have to give them a work over with black model paint, as the pliers did a job on its black coat even through a couple of layers of cloth.
 
Screw the fitting into rad or tube, fill with very cold water up to the level of the fitting. Gently warm the female connector all the way round if you like bbq lighter or something. Then try unscrew.
 
3 are still locked after trying the suggestions, so they are all getting a paint touch up and going back to the manufacturers.

Many of my blocks are plexi and a bent thread would cut right through plexi. You wont notice its effect until you put a normal fitting in and find that the threaded part is a tad big and you will need ptfe or a new plexi cover to stop leaks.

If they get sent back to me because 'there isnt anything wrong with them', i happen to have aluminium powder and Iron (III) oxide at very high purity, so we can try some temperature torture tests for fun (2000+C torture tests courtesy of thermite, muahahaha).
 
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Got a reply after an hour by e-mail (what time do they have these people working at?!), the shop (competitor as OCuk dont stock these fittings) isn't even bothering with the RMA and will be sending over another set for free but from a different manufacturer to qualm my paranoia on them. Will be getting some EK HD acrylic ones instead. They are not compressions but are sturdy enough and were my second choice of acrylic tube fittings out of the 3 samples i played with before taking the plunge (funnily enough, the original primochill fitting i bought to 'sample' didnt have a problem of being locked together).

The EK one was a little easier to use, since it is a one piece fitting and fit very snugly (due to the extra thick double O-ring build in) without needing excessive force but needed a fair bit of force to undo, which is ideal for reliability. They do however need a cleaner cut of acrylic, so as to not damage any of the rings, so some sanding is needed unlike with the primochill version as they are compressions, so their tube isnt pushed through the O-ring but rather the compression top is slid onto it with the O-ring. Neither need the cut to be even though, as the O-ring compression doesn't happen at the end of the tubing but rather on the side of the tubing.

Apart from the stuck Primochill fittings, acrylic is turning out to be easier to work with than i thought. I am sure my opinion will change tomorrow when i have to line up the tubing between blocks.

Thanks again for the help guys, needed people to tell methods so i was sure that RMA was my only option. People like me need a push to return items or make complaints, usually i just give up and buy again :D
 
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