Using ice to free a stuck burner.

This is a sort of re-post. Back in the spring I described bringing a Svea 123 back to life and mentioned that I had used ice to free the burner from the tank (Link).
However, I neglected to photograph the procedure I used. Yesterday I was stripping down a newly acquired Optimus 99 and came across the same problem - the burner was stuck solid to the tank.

Spent quite a while trying to free it - heat & quench etc, but no success. Didn't help that the hex was quite rounded. So I decided to try the ice method again but this time with camera to hand .

The idea is to create as much temperature difference between the burner and tank as possible. If we cool the burner, which is the male part of the joint, and heat the tank, which is the female part, then the former will contract and the latter will expand, hopefully leading to their easier separation.

First strip the burner and tank down to the basics. Then invert the assembly and place the burner in a container of water. Put this in the freezer for an hour or two and it will come out like this:



Remove from the freezer and remove the container:



Then attach a spanner (or in this case mole grips due to the rounded hex). Put some hot water in the tank and quickly put the tank cap on. Hold the tank in one hand and tap the spanner/grips repeatedly with a hammer. I find that multiple taps work better than one big whack.:



In this case the burner started to move after around 15 taps:



I offer no guarantee that it will work every time, but it may be worth a try when all else fails.

Regards,
Terry

 

Terry, great idea and thanks for the pics as well as a good explanation on how you did this.

 

Here in the States, and probably other places, one may buy aerosol cans of "component cooler", actually a spray of liquid nitrogen or something. Used to chill the electronic bits on printed circuit boards to identify which one is getting hot and failing out. I wonder if this might also work with joints needing some thermal difference across them. Piper

 

Great stuff Terry and well described and illustrated.

 

Thanks Terry, Very well explained and illustrated. As always, the simple physics are often the best solution to problems. Thanks again - Steve.

 

Hi
I always put a little Graphite mixed with WD40 on all my stove threads, prior to assembly. And they come apart like butter.
Give it a try. you can use pencile shavings too.
Daryoush

 

Prize to that man for perseverance and ingenuity!

I won't look at an ice-lolly out of the freezer in quite the same way ever again.

John

 

I soaked a Primus No.54 tank/riser connection for 3 days using *PB blaster, an excellent penetrant. Each day I attempted to break it loose w/carefully applied max torque, I had no luck 'et all.

Thank you Terry and hello Primusicle !


For this one i used a socket wrench and frozen inside the ice is a 19mm (6 pt) socket (the square hole of the socket is plugged w/plumber's putty, easily removed after freezing). The socket wrench went into the freezer also btw.
Per your tip: i added hot water then quickly applied the torque to break it loose (w/wrench in a vice and turned the stove).
With your tip, in my case, it easily came apart w/very little torque needed.



Oh btw, the 3 days attempting with PB blaster, i had applied much more torque while tapping on it... nothing.
thank you omc
tag @Trojandog

*PB Blaster is widely distributed in US. It has been my #1 choice (for motorcycles etc) BUT will it ever HARM MY BRASS... i dunno? Damn brass can be so unforgiving.
PB is a penetrant like WD40 & Liquid Wrench but may be better? It's presented as "penetrating catalyst" (vs penetrating oil), "Revolutionary Penetrating Magnetic Lubricant", "concentrated copolymer penetrant", "...it's capillary actions works where others fail"

 

Great stuff!

When plumbing, I have sometimes used a pipe freezing kit to enable me to work on water systems that haven't / can't be / don't need to be drained. The kit contains a wrap around jacket, some cable ties and an aerosol can (with 'straw' tube) that has the 'freezing' gas in it. To use it, the jacket is wrapped around the pipe away from your intended work piece and the gas is squirted into the jacket via the little straw tube. After a good application of gas and 10 minutes or so, the water in the pipe is frozen creating an ice plug that will last for 30 minutes or more. Replacement gas aerosols can be bought from any good plumbers, Wickes or B&Q etc. Sometimes there would be a little bit of gas left over, so I used to go down to our veggie patch and squirt the slugs with interesting results! You do have to be careful not to come into contact with the spray itself of course, otherwise you'll have instant frost bite or worse, and make sure that the kids don't get hold of it.

Anyway, a left over can of the gas could be useful for this application.

Baz

 

Terry, Thanks for shareing your clever solution on CCS.The pics are a great help,& filling the tank with hot water saves bringing a flame into the operation. Good sound reasoning.Best to you & THANKS again. Optimust.

 

I use the areasol spray chiller a lot , it works great. Just used it on a neighbours mower blades which he used a blow torch and all sorts with no avail. A long squirt with this stuff on the bolt with the body heated and it came off with little effort. So I really can vouch for this spray chiller.

Cheers
Rob

 

As a general advise, heat the nutted part and freeze the screw-part