What do people use/how do you remove O rings? I am thinking specifically those rings that are internal. I have a gas valve that has an o ring inside for sealing a cylinder. It's perished but not enough to easily pull out. I am stumped as to how to get to it! So I suppose this is more a problem for gassies but just the heck do you get those hard to get o rings out especially in a part that doesn't strip down? Also how do you get one back in? Alan
@salan3 A fine point on a tool long enough to handle is optimum. MSR (I think it is) include a large 'safety pin' for just that purpose. The idea isn't to stab the O-ring with the point but to get under it and lever it out. Of course, if the ring's to be replaced anyway, no harm done in jabbing it. But if to remove to inspect and replace, more care's called for. Getting an O-ring into its groove in a bore is a case of pushing the ring, bent inevitably, in the hole and prodding it into place, bit by bit. It'll flip into the groove quite quickly. I'd not use the safety pin point for that, something fine but a bit blunter. A fine jewellers' screwdriver's what I use. Most recently I used a jewellers' screwdriver to remove and replace a particularly inaccessible O-ring during my Soto pump dismantling. John
Alan: I bought an inexpensive set of dental picks on e-bay several years ago. I paid less than $10US for them and have used them on a number of projects. You could probably ask you dentist to save worn out picks for you. Paul
@kerophile & @shagratork I like the fact that the O-ring removers advertised on Simplybearings are the same set sold online from China as dental picks. Cheers Tony
Yes Tony. I assume 'Simplybearings' buys them from China. I could have got them slightly cheaper from China, but the ones I have ordered will get to me by Tuesday or Wednesday. There are lots of different sets advertised on eBay, but the differences in price are minimal.
I have been relying on dental picks of various sorts since I was introduced to them in college, where in Anthropology/Archaeology we used them for cleaning skeletal remains that we excavated. For O-ring removal I find the picks with a hooked end to be most useful, in that the hook can easily be worked under the O-ring to lift it up. When inserting an O-ring I find using two flat ended picks useful, one to hold the O-ring in place, the other to work the rest of the O-ring down. When the O-ring needs to be stretched slightly, two picks are necessary to keep the O-ring from continuously pulling out as it is stretched into place.
