Nipples frozen

[oneiron]

The nipples on the cylinder of my Pietta 58 Remington from Cabel's came frozen, and at my first attempt to remove them I damaged one side of the nipple wrench that came with the pistol. Does and one know of a socket type that I can use in impact wrench to remove these suckers?

 

[GRB]

I would think some penetrating oil, a few light taps every couple of minutes over the course 15 minutes or so with addition of more penetrating oil, and they should come loose.

 

[mykeal]

Kroil is my favorite penetrating oil. That should work.

Take your current nipple wrench (the damaged one) and throw it as far as you can into the deepest lake/river you can find. Then either buy a new hardened one, buy a regular one and harden it yourself with Kasenite, or make one out of a socket by cutting a slot in the end.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Concur with both. Hardened wrenches are the way to go. Kroil works OK, but give it several hours to penetrate.

Another trick I've used is to put the cylinder in very hot water - near boiling. The heat loosens things a touch.

 

[frontiergander]

ouch! Nothing fun about frozen nipples. Warmer jacket perhaps?

 

[1858rem]

on both my two spare cylinders i just got, and the original that came with my gun, most of the nipples were sized, just kept tapping an trying again worked pretty quick. on the original i still have one sized nipple though, actually broke the wrench(non hardened) after repeatedly having to straiten it out and try again. i just put a mark on the chamber and make sure to double and triple check before i ram the ball in so i dont forget powder lol

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Saok the cylinder in Desiel fuel for a few days use a brush on the cones. Get a 7/32" X 1/4 drive socket made in the USA cut it to fit the cone slot add a 1/4" breaker bar and you are set.

Desiel works when nothin else will...
Best a luck,

SG

 

[Zeke/PA]

+1 on the 1/4" drive socket.
A drop of "Neversieze" on the nipple threads is a good idea and don't over torque when installing.
The nipples on my Old Army are 9/32 hex and a nut driver works five for me.
Zeke

 

[fineredmist]

Once you have this problem resolved you can prevent future headaches by appling a small amout of Never Seize on the threads before installing the nipples. It has worked for me and I highly recommend it.

 

[Voodoochile]

The methods mentioned so far works like a charm in removing stubbern nipples & in the past when I did have one I have used Kerosene & also the boiling methods of removing them.

The anti sieze from the hardware or auto parts store will be your best friend in preventing this from happening again but also when reinstalling them don't use any torque on em, as a matter of fact I only use the shank portion of my wrench to install the nipples not the cross section therefore along with the anti sieze I've yet to have a stuck nipple cept from a new pistol/rifle.

 

[scrat]

Expansion Contraction. Get that cylinder hot. Then dump it in a bucket of ice water. That shock can loosen up the nipple After that though. i would soak it like the others said then use a very good nipple wrench. Like what voovoochile said you have to use a good anti sieze. I use permatex gray on all nipples and breech plugs

 

[frontiergander]

i've heard that just soaking it in boiling water or even just hot tap water will unfreeze them.

 

[jimrbto]

Follow Scrats advice= = = = guaranteed to ruin a cylinder!
Stick to penetrating oil and pressure with a GOOD nipple wrech

 

[4v50 Gary]

Inasmuch as I respect Scrat, I also would not get any metal red hot. Getting metal red hot and quenching it can harden the metal, making it too brittle to be safe (to shoot). We did that to knives in a blacksmithing class and afterwards tempered the metal to give it some flexibility so it wouldn't shatter.

 

[oneiron]

Thank you for your answers. They will be helpful.

 

[Sagetown]

Hey oneiron:
Place the cylinder on your workbench, along with a spraycan of penetrating oil, a nipple wrench, and get your wife's hair blowdryer. Spray the nipples from both ends of the cylinder. Let it set for a few minutes. With the blowdryer heat the nipple end of the cylinder. While the nipples are good and warm take the wrench and loosen each nipple.

Sage

 

[scrat]

Guys not red hot. Hot water. that will get it to what about 160-190. Not boiling hot water. enought to get it to 160. then cool it down. You may be able to put a wrench on it then and take it off. I have done this on machines a lot of time. Those temperatures are not extreme enough to impact the metal. There are machine shops that do this everyday. Take connecting rods. you would have to heat up the end of the connecting rod to insert the wrisp pin into the piston and rod. Or take sleeves. in order to sleeve an engine the sleeves would be put into a freezer so that they could be inserted into the block. You ever have a bolt that wont come off when hot. But then when it cools down it comes off easy. Expansion contraction. NOt to harden the metal but to excite the metal

 

[Sagetown]

Expansion Contraction. Get that cylinder red hot.

scrat ; You've always been a good source for INFO - - -I'm glad you clarified yourself. There for a minute I thought you'd lost it.

Here on the farm, large machinery parts can be difficult in removing large bolts and nuts. We use cutting torches to heat them a little bit for easy removal.

Sage

 

[scrat]

caught that. i guess thats what happens when your trying to watch a good movie and type on the internet as well. Has anyone seen Kelleys heros lately. Man that movie is so good

 

[4v50 Gary]

Thanks for the clarification. You have redeemed yourself and may resume your post as Grand Master of the Gonne.

 

[scrat]

hahahah i better stay off here for a while just put on another movie. i read what i wrote and thought what the heck. But then its sunday and what Labor day tomorrow. So just relaxing today

 

[gw1894]

LOL, same exact thing happened to me. I actually got the nipples off the first cylinder, but I put too much pressure on the spare cylinder and my first wrench broke on its second or third nipple.

I soaked a q-tip with kroil and dabbed it into the chambers around the threads, let both extra cylinders sit over night and they came out easy the next day. Was quite a relief. Once removed, I washed and scrubbed the nipple threads and dabbed some more kroil on'em before replacing. Shoved a bunch of kroil soaked q-tips into the cylinder's threads as well, and it got a bunch of black crud out.

If you don't have kroil, I'd think other similar lubes could get the job done as well.

I shot my 1858 Target model for the first time last week and am now a BP enthusiast, by the way. I left the 5.5" barreled 1858 and spare cylinder at home because I didn't want to get them nipples stuck on any more than they were - had to wait for a new nipple wrench in the mail.

After putting about 40 rounds thru the target model, the kroil coated nipples removed quite easily.

 

[Omnivore]

I've had to free thousands of stuck screws and bolts. Sometimes heat works like magic, and sometimes it does next to nothing. Depends on the nature of the problem, but try it nonetheless.

Get a good wrench;

There is no substitute for having the right tool. Why on Earth some companies sell these dead-soft "wrenches" and "screwdrivers" is a mystery. Maybe they think too many people respect them and they're trying to shed some of that respect. Yeah, that must be it.

You probably want to remove the nipples each time you clean the gun (which is every time you fire it) to avoid this in the future.

 

[sharps59]

Neversieze but not w/ graphfite in it.
It may or may not have been the cause but a frind used it on his musket. keep having cookoffs until he stoped using it.. It seems the graphfite would burn/smolder

 

[sundance44s]

If some company in America would just make us a good hardened nipple wrench ........I had a machinest make me one and haven`t had a problem since .....I was going through 4 of those soft cheap Itilian made wrenches a year ...throw away wrenches .