[TowerTalk] Loosening Al tubing to Al Tubing

[jcjacobsen at q.com]

The discussion has been on loosening Al tubing joints, and has progressed to the use of Noalox or similar. 

IF you use an excess amount of anti-seize, you will NEVER get the connection tight enough so it doesn't slip, especially on the smaller diameter tubing. You WILL strip out a worm gear type clamp, and the "Hy-Gain" type, well, good luck. Please, don't ask how I know this........ <GRIN> 


I finally remembered something from my tel-co employment days. The Western Electric installers, when installing high current, copper, buss bars......... would take a greenie scrub pad, and work some No-Alox into the metal. This did two things: It cleaned the oxides off the bar, and left a very thin coat of No-Alox behind. I started doing this on tubing. A small amount on the greenie, twist it around the connection/inner/smaller tubing and that part is done. You can sometimes use the greenie around a small dowel or screwdriver shaft and clean/coat the larger inside tube. OH, one other thing: Make sure you wear glove (leather palmed maybe) on the hand holding the greenie......... Again, don't ask how I found this out. If you DON'T wear a glove, have lots of hand cleaner around.......... 


Just my $.02 


73 
K9WN Jake