installing the gauges

[OldNSalty]

Simple question,

Please don’t laugh but my LDS scared me. I have an older setup and I wanted to remove the octo and cap the hole. I also wanted to install a set of gages on the first stage. I casually asked the guy at the LDS and of course he said they needed to do it. He told me ‘first, if you put an octo into the HP outlet it will blow a hose’ (I thought-sure but I wasn’t going to do that). Then he tells me that it is sooo easy to over-tighten as the part is only brass and I’ll ruin it if I do it myself.

So I realized I don’t need to put the thing in a vice and jump up and down on the end of the wrench but is it really that easy to mess up? I was just going to hand tighten and then use the wrench for maybe a quarter turn…Is that about right?

 

[herman]

Horse poo!
As long as you don't put a LP hose in a HP port your fine. To be accurate some of the older regs have HP ports that are the same 3/8x20 thread as a LP port, newer regs have larger HP ports. It is very easy the determine which is which, look in the port, if there is a TINY hole in it, it's a HP port. If the hole is 1/8in or larger, it's a LP port, that simple.
To install the hoses, simply start them by hand and continue by hand until they snug up, then just snug them up a little with the correct size wrench...an adjustable is Ok but I prefer to use the correct one. The key here is hand tighten then SNUG, the oring does the sealing so you just want to keep the hose from coming loose. No need for really cranking down on it. And for what it's worth I really don't like or recommend the multi scuba tool if you can avoid it, the wrenches are too thin and poorly sized IMO.