Loosen up stuck spacers

[souls33k3r]

I have come to a point where I'm finding spacers are now sort of feel like they're welded together rather than tightened and they are absolutely hard to unscrew them. I've tried everything and have managed to loosen up a few of them but there are still quite a few that I can not seem to do much about. 

Now these spacers range from 2mm and all the way up to 15-20mm so am looking for something that will work on both small and big spacers. I know there are these these camera lens filter removal tools (I'm sure these will grip fine on thin spacers as well as thicker ones but not sure if they will grip tight enough?) 

And then you have these rubber strap wrenches (The rubber straps have thicker profile so not sure if I will be able to grip the thinner spacers? Say I have a 5mm and a 7mm stuck spacer stuck together, will this be better?) 

Not sure which one is best for the job keeping in mind I will be working with thin and thick spacers. 

Which one will works best and would you recommend and have used? 

Thanks in advance. 

[Guest]

Hello, I am using the  rubber strap wrenches, they work very good..

Edited October 5, 2019 by Guest

[souls33k3r]

3 hours ago, artem said:

Hello, I am using the  rubber strap wrenches, they work very good..

Will the rubber strap work with the two thinner spacers as well? Because most of my stuck spacers are 10mm or less

[Guest]

Hello souls33k3r

I did also have many of my adaptares stuck since maybe years and I did try everyway to get them apart, without any luck or any chance, but with the rubber strap wrenches  I was able to get apart almost every adapter, even the 10mm one " you need to train your hand and find a technink how to get the GRIP on very thin adapters and find the best position"

You may spend 2-10 minutes in getting the adapters apart, but the more you train, the better you get..

But the rubber strap wrenches  have another good function, you get delivered 2x small rubber strap wrenches and 2x big rubber strap wrenche, so you can combine them " when I did order mine, I did get 4of them, 2x small and 2x the big versions "

One other issue, the rubber strap wrenches  do not bend the adapters and also not cause any scratches.. and you already know, how much you need to pay for a  single  10m adapter !!

 

Martin

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Guest

[souls33k3r]

7 minutes ago, artem said:

Hello souls33k3r

I did also have many of my adaptares stuck since maybe years and I did try everyway to get them apart, without any luck or any chance, but with the rubber strap wrenches  I was able to get apart almost every adapter, even the 10mm one " you need to train your hand and find a technink how to get the GRIP on very thin adapters and find the best position"

You may spend 2-10 minutes in getting the adapters apart, but the more you train, the better you get..

But the rubber strap wrenches  have another good function, you get delivered 2x small rubber strap wrenches and 2x big rubber strap wrenche, so you can combine them " when I did order mine, I did get 4of them, 2x small and 2x the big versions "

One other issue, the rubber strap wrenches  do not bend the adapters and also not cause any scratches.. and you already know, how much you need to pay for  single  a10m adapter !!

 

Martin

 

Wowzer, I thought they only come in a single or a pack of two. Where did you buy yours? 

[Merlin66]

As I’ve recommended in the past, before using spacers etc give the threads a smear of boot polish, this will significantly reduce the chances of seizures.

To separate them another trick is to use the anti slip map you can buy for kitchen drawers, or a rubber flip flop and press the spacers into the material and twist....

Rubber gloves have also had success.

 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Wowzer, I thought they only come in a single or a pack of two. Where did you buy yours? 

I did buy mine at or order them at amazon " 2 years ago " did pay something like 10€ + posage fee or so.. I was also surpised to find that in the package there were 2x small and 2x big version of the rubber strap wrenches , you need to check if that is also today the same., else you can cobine also the BIG + SMALL  rrubber strap wrenches ..

 

Bye

 

Martin

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Guest

[souls33k3r]

10 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

As I’ve recommended in the past, before using spacers etc give the threads a smear of boot polish, this will significantly reduce the chances of seizures.

To separate them another trick is to use the anti slip map you can buy for kitchen drawers, or a rubber flip flop and press the spacers into the material and twist....

Rubber gloves have also had success.

Boot polish is most definitely now applied and the spacers that I did manage to loosen were indeed done with placing them in between the rubber slippers I just didn't like the force I had to apply so wanted to find an alternative and better solution

9 minutes ago, artem said:

I did buy mine at or order them at amazon " 2 years ago " did pay something like 10€ + posage fee or so.. I was also surpised to find that in the package there were 2x small and 2x big version of the rubber strap wrenches .

Been looking at ebay and couldn't find anything with 4pcs hehehe I guess I'll have to make it work with the 2 then 😛 tbh I only need two wrenches for this job but like I said, I need something that is capable of holding on to two thin spacers stuck together. 

[Guest]

Hello

I did find the email from amazon from 2 years in my mailbox, at that time as I did order mine, they were selling the rrubber strap wrenches  as "2x 2 picces of rrubber strap wrenches ".. so I did buy them at the right time..

Edited October 5, 2019 by Guest

[johninderby]

Or use some anti-seize compound which is more effective than boot polish but boot polish is better than nothing.

Like this jar lid remover strap wrench as it’s easier to use as you tighten it by twisting the handle and the strap won’t fall out while adjusting it.Ideal for unscrewing stuck filters. Not cheap though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zyliss-StrongBoy-Jar-Opener-Grey/dp/B002KFZKZ8?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4

Edited October 5, 2019 by johninderby

[souls33k3r]

51 minutes ago, artem said:

Hello

I did find the email from amazon from 2 years in my mailbox, at that time as I did order mine, they were selling the rrubber strap wrenches  as "2x 2 picces of rrubber strap wrenches ".. so I did buy them at the right time..

Hehehe good man, cheers mate. 

3 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Or use some anti-seize compound which is more effective than boot polish but boot polish is better than nothing.

Like this jar lid remover strap wrench as it’s easier to use as you tighten it by twisting the handle and the strap won’t fall out while adjusting it.Ideal for unscrewing stuck filters. Not cheap though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zyliss-StrongBoy-Jar-Opener-Grey/dp/B002KFZKZ8?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4

I'll take a look. Cheers mate

[michaelmorris]

The delrin T2 spacers sold by FLO are also good at reducing the risk of them getting 'cold welded'.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-t2-delrin-spacer-ring-set.html

[kirkster501]

Best way to separate them is to get two trainers, put the two cold welded spacers between the heels of the two trainers press hard with your hands inside the trainers whilst twisting.  This will separate almost anything.

[Alien 13]

I have yet to meet a spacer that I cant undo with the palms of my hands, roll the spacer first on a worktop etc to remove any stresses then a quick flick with the palms will undo it.

Trainers work well but best of all if you cant manage with your palms is a pair of table tennis bats, even better if you can print an astro design on them 

Alan

[david_taurus83]

 

 

13 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

I have come to a point where I'm finding spacers are now sort of feel like they're welded together rather than tightened and they are absolutely hard to unscrew them. I've tried everything and have managed to loosen up a few of them but there are still quite a few that I can not seem to do much about. 

Now these spacers range from 2mm and all the way up to 15-20mm so am looking for something that will work on both small and big spacers. I know there are these these camera lens filter removal tools (I'm sure these will grip fine on thin spacers as well as thicker ones but not sure if they will grip tight enough?) 

And then you have these rubber strap wrenches (The rubber straps have thicker profile so not sure if I will be able to grip the thinner spacers? Say I have a 5mm and a 7mm stuck spacer stuck together, will this be better?) 

Not sure which one is best for the job keeping in mind I will be working with thin and thick spacers. 

Which one will works best and would you recommend and have used? 

Thanks in advance. 

Snap! I've just bought a set of the rubber straps. Not tried them yet..

 

As explained in the other thread, I had to use a small vice and apply a heat gun to get a 5mm spacer of a filter drawer the other night, hence the scoring on the spacer.

[Mark-V]

another vote  from me for rubber strap  wrenches

[r3i]

I use a combination of rubber strap wrenches and filter wrenches.  I got the filter wrenches from ScopeStuff in the USA: http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_fwrn.htm

Will have to try the trainers technique sometime.

Edited October 6, 2019 by r3i

[johninderby]

I have a few different sizes of strap wrenches that usually deal with any spacer or filter.

Only once have I had to resort to something more brutal to remove a filter. Had a 2” filter that had welded irself to a duagonal nosepiece. Filter straps on their own or anything else I tried just couldn’t do it so decided that I might have to destroy the filter to get it off. Removed the nospiece from the diagonal and clamped the filter in a bench vice so tightly I was sure I was going to crush the glass. Then used a very large strap wrench on the nosepiece and finaly got the filter off. Surprisingly the filter survived and is still used.🙀

Edited October 6, 2019 by johninderby

[souls33k3r]

I was going to buy strap wrenches today but a mate of mine had a strap wrench and some rubber gloves that he kindly let me have them to try this first. Well the strap wrench is 1.9cm thick so getting a 5mm spacer in right was tricky. The stupid thing kept on moving inside the rubber but then also I was using a pair of rubber gloves. 

In the past, I have tried using rubber boots and managed to get 2 spacers lossen but that was about it. 

I'm not sure if you think these rubber wrenches are going to work on thinner spacers which are between 5 & 10mm? These rubber strap wrenches do come in a pack of two... One being 1.2cm and the other 1.9cm.

[JamesF]

I have an oil filter removal tool that looks something like this:

The harder you turn the tool, the tighter it grips the filter until it starts to turn.  I wonder if something similar to that would work for very reluctant parts?

James

[carastro]

I have a spacer stuck on my filterwheel that even Davey T with his rubber Straps and various vices was still unable to remove.  Trouble is it's not a very wide spacer and Dave was convinced it was a permanent fixture.  

Decided to live with it in the end as it does actually give me the right spacing for one of my two cameras, just have to remember which camera I am using and use the appropriate filterwheel.  So it is there forever.  Just hope I don't need to sell the EFW at some point in the future.

Carole 

Edited October 7, 2019 by carastro

[Yawning Angel]

I’ve had success which freezing / flash heating stuck spacers in the past:

-Spray with a can of spray air, upside down so it’s the liquid coming out,  enough to chill it

-Warm on a hot surface for a few seconds, to expand the outside ring

-Unscrew, gripped with rubber cloth (the jar opening type)

-Clean with isopropyl alcohol 

Obviously, not easy if there are optical elements 😕

[souls33k3r]

I've literally just had another go at this. I heated the spacers using heat gun for 10 seconds and then left the spacers to slightly cool after which I put on rubber gloves and pushed both spacers between my hands and then unscrewed them. Came right off.. Result!!! 

[Alien 13]

Not a fan of straps etc, its the uneven side pressure that causes spacers to stick in the first place so using them will never end well.

Alan

[bottletopburly]

Took my Idas D2 filter off camera last night, pig of a job finally managed it , maybe Astro manufacturers should fit notches so they can be removed with a tool