Angle grinder to cut taps off?

[rreanor]

Hello, i'm trying to replace the taps on my cast iron bath, which i've had to leave in situ due to the complications of moving it.

I've been trying to loosen the back nuts in a very confined space, but they simply wont budge!

I then tried hitting the tap on the top side to nudge it into action, but the whole tap has now snapped off, leaving the base plate on the enamel of the bath.

Can i just take an angle grinder to this, and literally cut the taps off? Will a metal angle grinder disc go through tap?

 

[footprints]

You will almost certainly screw up the bath. Old taps on cast iron had 4 lugs to stop them turning so you will never spin them.
Try and post a picture of underneath the bath. Do you have a proper basin spanner?

 

[rreanor]

See attached. I have a box wrench for the nut.

 

[opps]

Perhaps you could use an oscillating saw to cut through the brass nut (from top to bottom). Then lever it open.

 

[Madrab]

Get a dremel and cut the back nut off.

You may also be able to use the angle grinder and a 1mm blade and cut straight up the edge of the tail and catch the nut, if you are confident enough.

Don't try it from the bath side, it will almost certainly end in a drama.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Rather than an angle grinder I'd be tempted to use a Dremel or junior hacksaw first. You could vertically cut the tube that is sticking up, then tap the elements into the middle to collapse the centre.
or cut the brass nut,

looks like a ton of sealant on there

 

[Nige F]

The sealant underneath is red lead putty

 

[Exedon]

I've done this in the past by driving a lump of timber down into tap cut off square.
Get a starret type cutter just bigger than tap thread (29mm I think)
Mark center on timber drill down .tap bits just fall out.

 

[opps]

Perhaps you could use an oscillating saw to cut through the brass nut (from top to bottom). Then lever it open.

I have just remembered, the last time that I had to deal with a nut like that, I chain drilled a series of holes in the nut and prised it apart. I didn't have my oscillating saw with me at the time.

Personally, I would not want to use an angle grinder in such a confined space. On the balance of probability, you will only be able to hold it with one hand.

 

[Elkato531]

Multi tool on the nut to cut it off. May still need a few good whacks upwards to release the tap tails from whatever sealant has been used.

 

[footprints]

Does not look too corroded some releasing oil or at a pinch wd40 left to soak is worth a try.

 

[Stivino]

Socket?

 

[footprints]

Try drilling a small hole at an angle into the nut, then use a larger drill to cut the nut in two

 

[johnny2007]

From under the bath, drill a hole through the thread, halfway down.
Then insert correct size star spanner into the nut.
Screwdriver through the hole you've drilled and so you have your 2 gripping points.
Make sure you turn the nut in the correct direction.
Look at it from underneath and go anti clockwise.

 

[polesapart]

Heat softens putty.

Judicious use of blowtorch may help.

But I agree that swapping out puttied-in bath taps on cast-iron baths in situ, especially when the kind installer of 60 or 80 years ago has smeared putty all down the tap threads is a klunt of a task.

Slight thread deflection (apols) : can anyone give me a year -or even a decade- when bath manufacturers changed from the square oversize late Victorian/Edwardian size bath and basin tapholes to the more modern circular size? Were cast-iron baths with square tapholes being manufactured up till 1962?