Copper tails on a monobloc kitchen tap

[anta]

I have an old kitchen tap (~1980s at a guess) which I want to reuse on a sink in my garage. It is a single hole mixer tap and has two copper tail pipes on it. One of the pipes is very loose and I doubt it will be water tight. It turns freely about 1/2 a turn or so but then becomes stiff again.

How do the copper tails detach from the tap? And if I remove them can I use modern 10mm screw in flexi pipes instead?

All help appreciated.
Cheers
Ant

 

[Nige F]

cut them off short then unscrew as normal thread- Yes you can get flexi replacements

 

[anta]

Well I've done as you said and they're now undone. They were an anti-clockwise thread! Is that normal?

 

[mrgas]

If they unscrewed anticlockwise that would be totally normal.
If they screwed in anticlockwise I doubt you will find replacements for them. Never seen left hand threads on tap tails in 30 years.

 

[anta]

Well I double checked and they are indeed anti-clockwise threads. Anti-clockwise to tighten them, clockwise to undo.

So does anyone sell flexible tails with anti-clockwise threads??? Or do I need a new tap?

 

[muggles]

New taps I'm afraid, if it's a left hand thread then there's no guarantee it's a standard pitch so even if you did find new tails with left-handed threads, which is highly unlikely, the pitch may be wrong so they wouldn't screw in anyway.

 

[Lincsbodger]

screw them back in with a big dollop of boss white?

 

[muggles]

screw them back in with a big dollop of boss white?

They've been cut off short so I expect they're beyond use

 

[anta]

Ok. Thanks for the help guys. I only need the cold connection and one of the tails is not quite beyond use so I'll tighten it up with some sealant around it and see what happens. Otherwise I'll be after a new tap.

Last question (I hope) is the hole in the drainer the same size for monobloc taps as for a single hot or cold tap? Or do I need to buy another monobloc tap?

 

[muggles]

The hole is normally larger for monoblocs, if you got a single tap with a large base to it you might be able to cover the hole but it'll probably move around over time

 

[shapes01]

"screw them back in with a big dollop of boss white?"

Yeah and contaminate the water supply.

If they are anti-clockwise thread, they are probably some kind of euro crap, having said that you can get spares from a brassware importer.