# Forum Home Renovation Plumbing  How To Use A Reseating Tool?

## abrogard

I have one of those manual reseating tools that screws into the tap base after you've taken the top off.  It has a business end with jagged things on it and you can turn it with the bar at the top. 
 I guess all plumbers know what I mean. 
 Well I haven't had a lot of luck with it, stopping drips. And I find it is very easy to jam it in there so it won't move and so it has taken too much material away and probably worsened the situation. 
 So from trial and error I've finally come up with a method of using  it that goes like this:  
 Screw it in there so's the business end is not forced against the seat at all. 
 Then use the free movement to push it down against the seat and then rotate it backwards - against the apparent cutting angle of the teeth - a few turns, pushing down on it, and then take a look see what's happening. 
 I'll then see bright metal and I'll see that it is not uniform on the seat. Obviously the seat is not flat and perfect. So I work away like this until I do have a perfect circle of bright metal. 
 A couple of times, different taps, I've seen a dark line cutting across the seat, as though the seat were made by circling a piece of metal and the circle wasn't fully closed. I was never able to cut enough metal away to remove those dark lines. 
 Using it the other possible way: turning it forwards and screwing it down until it touches the seat, both or either seem to make it inevitable that it will dig in and take too much metal and finally jam tight. 
 But it has occurred to me that I might be being too namby pamby and the real way to use the thing might be just that: screw her in until touching and then work forwards and when it bites pour on the pressure using a spanner or something and really cut that metal out... 
 So that's where I'm at. Seems to me the only way to do it. 
 And I do get results. 
 But I thought it might be worth my asking.....  Is this the way they are meant to be used? 
 regards, 
 ab   :Smilie:

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## nww1969

Im not a plumber but it sounds ok what you have done.
If you have a nice shinny face it would seem you have done the right thing.
I have used one many times without problems.
Now if you are still having dripping problems have you replaced the washer with
a new one and is it the right size. Everyone have there preferred washer type and mine
is the half ball shape end type which is very soft and seats very well and I would 
expect seats better than the flat washers if you were not to cut the brass flat.
But if you have taken to much brass it might be best to try the half ball end. 
Have you also replaced the O rings in the spindle of the tap itself.
My thoughts anyway.

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## Batpig

Dear Ab, 
The correct way to use them is the second method you suggested - ie. the aggressive direction of cutting, which is clockwise...  *but*... 
If the cutting action is too aggressive, you will leave "teeth-chatter" marks on the seat, which will make it very hard to get a good seal - even with a new washer. The way to limit the aggressiveness of the cutting-action is by grabbing the knurled "neck" (ie. the middle bit that can still turn within the outermost screwing-in part) with a pair of pliers or something, and then "feel" you're way with how much you let the neck tighten up as you're turning the cutting-spindle. In other words, in your left hand, you've got a pair of pliers setting the tightness of the rotating-neck, while you're using your right hand to turn the cutting-spindle (unless of course you're a "Lefty"... :Cool: ) 
Having said that, it's also worth saying that them Cotton-Pickin' Gunslingin' Pro-Plumbers (like Vunderplumb... :Tongue: ) all use the Drill-powered "Hydroseal"-brand Reamer, and let me tell you, it's no Vunder! I've got an old hand-powered reamer, as well as the drill-powered Hydroseal, and the Hydroseal is much easier to use, and is more accurate as well, to the point of not leaving those "crescent moons" that you mention (which my hand-powered unit does too - just like yours...) 
Anyway, the BigB has them for about $45 or so. They've got a website somewhere too... 
Good Luck,
Batpig.

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## abrogard

Well thanks guys. It was worth my asking.  
 I've used the ball shaped washers with some success here and there. But sometimes I've found taps without enough room to get one in. 
 Yep, I thought clockwise might be the correct way. It makes sense. I can see the cutting teeth cut in that direction. But I had such hassles with it jamming up.  I think the last time I used the tool in the clockwise direction I tried the pair of pliers thing but found it all too difficult to get a smooth feeling job going. 
 Like if I screwed it in too far I couldn't turn it at all. If I backed off too much it spun uselessly. If I had it in the middle somewhere it'd grab, then spin, grab then spin and the faintest movement from that position and it would become either a useless spinner or a grabber. 
 So I gave up on that direction and started doing what I've described, scraping backwards with it. 
 I feel it is essentially a pretty incompetent tool in the hands of someone like me ( i.e. an essentially pretty incompetent diy-er ). 
 So I'm pleased to hear of this motorised version and I'll look for it. 
 regards, 
 ab   :Smilie:  
 p.s. the 'crescent moons' ? I didn't actually use this expression and I wonder what you mean. Like the 'bright metal' that I said I see is the only thing I can think of - but that's not a bad thing, that's the newly created flat surface isn't it? 
 Perhaps you're talking about some feature that it'd be good for me to be aware of....

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## Wombat2

Yours must be different than mine - but then mine is an el-cheapo that dose the job  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  
The screw in bit on mine mearly centres the spindle and the cutting spindle moves up and down and is dependent on 'hand pressure' to achieve cut Must admit the only time I have had a good result was in the shower when I could use a bit of body weight and lean into it  :Biggrin:

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## Batpig

Dear Ab,  

> I'll then see bright metal and I'll see that it is not uniform on the seat. Obviously the seat is not flat and perfect. So I work away like this until I do have a perfect circle of bright metal.

  Yep, that's what I meant alright; those shiny little "Crescent Moons"... 
But you see - if the tap was working properly before, wouldn't you think that the seat must have already been more or less flat, except that it's probably had a little channel worn across it somewhere that's big enough to cause it to leak. 
So... if the seat was already flat, it must actually be the Reamer that is out of plumb when the little Crescent Moons appear  :Doh: . That's why I mentioned it about mine - so you'd know that the darn things can actually be "out" by a bit. Have you ever noticed that yours feels like it's slowly "rocking" a bit as you use it? 
Anyway, the Hydroseal is spot-on, and as you'd expect, the first time I've used it on any particular tap, it's given a Crescent Moon on the opposite side of the seat to what the hand-powered unit does/did... :Redface:  
Best Wishes,
Batpig.

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## abrogard

That's the clue, I think, the 'give' in the tool. Probably made by a chinese apprentice or slave labourer in some factory in shenzhen. I can push the central shaft around quite a bit, quite too much I'd say. 
 Here's a pic of mine. As 'el cheapo' as you can get I think. 
 You can see that nothing on mine really 'centres' the spindle. The outer screw sets it up and you could say 'centres' it except that there's so much play between the outer screw and the inner screw and then between the inner screw and the shaft the centering is rough at best. 
 The inner screw is then used to bring the business end of the tool down onto the job. 
  But then the action of the tool seeks to drive it further down into the job, causing it to jam. So you have to hold that inner screw with something to stop that, while turning the spindle with your other hand. 
  I found that holding it like that if I relaxed enough to allow say an eighth of a rotation either way it'd be enough to jam the tool or let it spin uselessly. 
  I got the best results by leaning on it and using it backwards. That way it couldn't jam and still scraped soft metal off the seat.  
   And perhaps that would be good enough. I don't know. What's the main thing here? To get the seat smooth and all in the same plane? Or to get it in a plane at perfect right angles to the shaft of the washer?  
  I only know I can get tiny drips from a tap that appears to have a good seat, bright metal all around. So that makes me want to ensure I've got a plane surface there and at right angles to the shaft. What more can I do, I think to myself. 
 And this motorised tool seems to be the way to do it. Or, to put that another way: this particular hand tool seems to me to not be a very effective tool. 
 Certainly not in the hands of such as me.   :Smilie:  
 forward into the future......

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