Bent Spanner on Apeks

[FFMDiver]

I bent the pin of my brand new "peter" pin spanner wrench while attempting to remove the diaphragm clamp (counter-clockwise turn) from the valve body of my 1 year-old DST. Did this after mounting the reg on a bench vice and slipping a pipe over the hook spanner for leverage...sucker wont turn... Does anyone have any recommendations for removal? Thank you.

 

[FFMDiver]

Thats why god made monkey wrenches...

Was it Apeks acting like a monkey screwing the dumb thing on so TIGHT? Anyhow, its off... put some great bite marks in it. Used a file to take the scoring down but it looks rather nasty. Does not effect functionality. Any ideas for my other Apeks? Tapping on it? Throwing the whole thing in a an ultrasonic cleaner??

 

[FFMDiver]

Heres a stronger spanner:

http://www.divingniknaks.com/proddetail.php?prod=13002&cat=58&nav=

No pic but they told me it is steel one piece...

 

[David P]

I just did a search for pin spanners and came up with a thread with pics of a nice custom tool someone made...might want to take a look

 

[David P]

http://thedecostop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11503&highlight=pin+spanner+apeks
right search, wrong site...

 

[Oceanseleven]

This is a constant problem with the Apeks dry sealed system. I've broken 2 spanner wrentches already on these regs. Now, if I get a real stingy one, I soak it in really hot water for 5 - 10 minutes and possibly drop the whole thing in the sonic cleaner for 5 minutes. Then I put it in the vice upside down meaning the dry seal cap goes in the vice with a rubber bike tube on it for protection and the rest of the first stage is facing up. Then I take another old bike tube tied in a loop and wrap it around the first stage and crank on it with a big set of channel locks. Seems to work everytime on the stingy ones and if your carefull and wrap the reg properly there is usually no damage, not even scratches.

 

[FFMDiver]

Wow, great advice.
Thank you.

This is a constant problem with the Apeks dry sealed system. I've broken 2 spanner wrentches already on these regs. Now, if I get a real stingy one, I soak it in really hot water for 5 - 10 minutes and possibly drop the whole thing in the sonic cleaner for 5 minutes. Then I put it in the vice upside down meaning the dry seal cap goes in the vice with a rubber bike tube on it for protection and the rest of the first stage is facing up. Then I take another old bike tube tied in a loop and wrap it around the first stage and crank on it with a big set of channel locks. Seems to work everytime on the stingy ones and if your carefull and wrap the reg properly there is usually no damage, not even scratches.