How to use a Double Hook Pick

[rsingler]

Good correction @halocline ! You're right, of course. I'll edit my post. Thank you for your careful reading!

EDIT: text corrected in .pdf file in post #1 as well as the thread itself, and file reloaded.

 

[stepfen]

Another great post!. Congratulations @rsingler
I have a question though.

At this point, the handle is rotated until the tip appears on the other side of the o-ring.

The tip still needs to be pushed through between the (potentially hard/stuck) oring and the land. How do you make sure that in this step the tip won't scratch the land?

To make things worst, in most "easy" cases, after the oring removal, the land is visible and hence it can be inspected. But for this kind of difficult parts (hose inlets etc) the land is not visible even without the oring and hence such scratches can't even be seen.

Question is theoretical as my equipment is pretty new, hence I haven't needed to remove this kind of o-rings so far.

Thanks once more for the great help to the community.

 

[rsingler]

If your oring is dried and hardened, it's going to be discarded anyway. So in that case, start with the handle rotated a little more so the sharp tip is definitely away from the land. Then, when you angle the handle, the sharp point will bury itself in the oring, rather than slip between it and the land.
Further rotation of the handle will then drive the point through the oring, and it will likely fracture as the shaft of the pick is pushed thru.
That's not a bad thing, as you can use a plastic pick to pry out the pieces.
You intuition is correct: when things get difficult, keep the point away from the land, and sacrifice the oring.

 

[Pao]

I just skewer the O-ring. Much less chance of scratching the O-ring groove.

 

[Johnoly]

Hope you saw the .pdf in Post #1.

The PDF is excellent because you can really Zoom into the pictures and see the details in what you wrote.
I'm Always Learning,,,,,thanks for taking the time to write & post this up !!

 

[divad]

Fabulous post!......thank you.

 

[rsingler]

I just skewer the O-ring. Much less chance of scratching the O-ring groove.

That is the preferred technique for many technicians 90% of the time. I have no argument except for the HP oring inside the bore of a Mk5, Mk10 and many other older pieces of gear. It's why the Mk25 went to a stacked series of backup ring, HP oring and washer: so all the parts could be pushed out, instead of speared with a pick.
Any scratch in the side of the land for the HP piston shaft oring will mean bubbling from the ambient holes and the reg is toast. You simply cannot fix it. As seen in post #4, the double hook is tailor made for tight spaces.

 

[Andrew Dawson]

Excellent, rsingler!!

 

[Couv]

Another great tutorial, Rob.

 

[SlugLife]

Thanks for sharing this! I had this tool in my collection, but was afraid to use it. I marked up the tool as shown & practiced removing the o-ring on a junk LP hose.

There are probably 3-4 other times I could have used this recently, including removing some inner o-rings on a 1st-stage regulator.