sticky nipple

What were you thinking of!? I've been, um, thinking to myself for the past week as I failed day after day to remove the close nipple on our dining room radiator (to center it better on the wall). WD40 to the rescue, plus lots of patience. I'd spray the seam and exposed threads every day, give it a push with the beater bar -- and strip the nipple to shiny steel. Then I'd give it another spray and prop it against the wall to seep.

The first day I tried to twist this rusty-stuck nipple I watched the WD40 in the hope I would see evidence of it penetrating the threads. Yesterday there was reference to calling a plumber to work some additional torque on the problem. This morning I asked myself. Where does the clinging pool of WD40 go? Is it working some slow alchemy or is it evaporating? Can it evaporate? Just what the hell IS WD40?

This evening I held the radiator on edge and took a seat before spraying the threads. Where does the WD40 go?  And the meniscus of light... fluxed? I watched on with re-doubled attention. It pulsed again. What else could it be but the wonderous WD40 sleekly seeping. I lay the radiator down, assembled my pipe-wrench lever, and gave it a pull. I've been stripping that nipple for over a week so believe me when I say this felt somehow the same but different. I reset the wrench and pulled again, this time closely watching the nipple's threads. They turned. See the impossible happen.

Comments

[Protection From Heat]

Thanks for writing such an insightful article. After reading it, I really stepped away from it with more of an understanding then I held before.