Why are hex head bolts hex rather than Octagonal (or square?)

Would that be like buying your first metric vehicle?

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Nah, a tape measure is a 'yo yo'. Everyone knows that.

Well, I started out with a '50 Austin A40, bought a cheap set of BSW open end wrenches and proceeded to drop the pan to block the crank so's I could get the crank-nut off and replace the seal in the timing cover - at 17 I didn't know the rope trick. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Same thing with us. Do get lucky sometimes and find a pond or pool with some wet stuff in it. We do have one are that has hydrants BUT those are ornamental for water flow since they were installed in the mid 40's and have a HUGE 3" mainline, which with the mineral content in the water has shrunk to about 1", They are also connected into many private wells and if you did hook to them you are in for a BIG surprise. We had that happen back in the 60's when they tried connecting a small pumper to one as a test. They couldn't get enough water to keep the pump primed.

Steve W.

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:40:05 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner quickly quoth:

I have a whole bunch of 5-1/2 sided sockets and wrenches. They're known as crow's-foot sockets and flare-nut wrenches. ;)

Sorry, they're all SAE, but I do have quite a few 6pt metric sockets, plus open-end and combo metric wrenches.

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Also prevents a geyser when a car hits 'em. When I was little our YMCA guy ran over a hydrant on the way from school. I looked down the hole while we were waiting for the other van to get us and saw the valve assembly.

Ever wonder why :kneecapping: someone is considered a really bad thing?

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

It doesn't prevent all of them. Two or three years ago someone ran over one here and it looked just like on the movies. Karl

The fireman is lucky that all he got was a broken leg. A guy on a ship was working on a jammed steering gear. They couldn't get a zerk to take grease. The zerk was being unscrewed when grease pressure blew out the zerk and killed the unfortunate crewman.

-- Jim

It all depends on where you live - if the odds of a hard freeze in your town are at or near zero, the fireplug probably will not have all that fancy (and very expensive) below-ground valve and self-draining stuff, the valves are all inside the top of the plug. Shear it off, and you have an instant municipal fountain.

(At least till they turn off the service valve at the water main.)

They only spend the extra money to rig up freeze-proof fire hydrants in places where they actually get freezes. And if they don't have the self-draining hydrants, after they're done testing or using the hydrant they turn off the bottom valve, siphon out some of the water, and dump in anti-freeze.

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Heh. Yep, if you give em a hard enough knock to the side, it seems to break the valve assembly at the bottom.

This was proved at the corner near my local middle school one lunchtime. Truck cut the corner too sharp, and the back wheels clobbered the hydrant which was *right* at the corner.

They had a tough time getting all those kids (me included) back into the school after lunch recess, the water was shooting about five feet into the air!

Jim

Ahh, but you do not know the secret, Grasshopper... ;-) The fire hydrant is designed to take that kind of abuse in stride. (Same thing with vacuum breakers or other large waterworks devices mounted along the side of the road.)

That bolted flange connection at the ground or sidewalk level of the hydrant is there for a reason - they use hollow bolts (filled with grease to stop rust) that are designed to shear and let the hydrant break away when a car or truck hits them, usually long before breaking the water main feed pipe underground.

And if there isn't a sidewalk there to provide a proper fracture line for the flange bolts, they usually also install a 12" tall cast iron extension riser below ground with a strategically placed weakening notch around the middle - if a piece of pipe is going to break, they know exactly how and where.

Makes a nice straight 8" fountain until the water company or the fire department shuts off the service valve. Then a water department crew can come out in a few days with a small boom hoist (hydrants are heavy!) a new set of breakaway bolts and a fresh flange gasket, and reattach the hydrant.

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That would explain it. I live in Hawaii. Not much in the way of hard freezes. Karl