Toilets Don’t Scare Me

I didn’t get to do any machining today. Figures. I got called to the boat to do a sea trial, and then I got MOST of the old handle off the valve on the head, and then my dad and I ran errands for boat parts. Now it’s nearly 5:00 p.m.

I got a new gate valve, figuring I might be able to take the heavy cast handle off of it and put it on the old shaft. The original valve had a stamped handle, which may be one reason it didn’t last. The debris that used to be a handle appears to be similar to brass, not steel, so I’m not sure why it rotted away. The valve itself is brass, and it’s still there.

The new valve I got is from Indonesia. The old valve had a stamped handle held on by a stainless screw that fit in the end of the shaft. The new one has the cast handle and a (possibly) stainless nut. The handle has a square hole in it, and the shaft is ground off so it has four flats on it, and the manufacturer just jammed it down onto the shaft. I think it’s tapered. I got it off easily using a vise and a hammer. I rested the handle on the vise, with the valve dangling between the jaws, and I hit the end of the shaft, driving it down through the hole in the handle.

I would rather make a cool handle that won’t rot, but this will be a good Plan B. I’d have to get a new stainless screw to put it on the old shaft. The old screw was cheap and soft, so it’s somewhat mangled.

I was thinking life would be much easier if I could just undo the pressure nut holding the old shaft in, remove the guts of the old valve, and insert the guts of the new valve. But I have no idea how to get the old shaft out once the coupling is off. Something holds it in place. I need to find a diagram somewhere.

I am Googling around, and now I’m wondering…was the guy who installed the toilet smart enough to know that a gate valve isn’t the right thing for throttling flow? This is something I learned from a sprinkler guy. A gate valve has a wedge-shaped thing in the path of the water. Turning the handle drives a screw that pushes the wedge into place, and I guess it mates against the brass of the housing, shutting off the flow. If you don’t open it all the way, bad things happen. The sprinkler guy said water flows over and erodes the wedge. Wikipedia says something about vibration eating it. Anyway, what you really want in a situation like this is a globe valve, and for all I know, that’s what’s on the toilet now.

Maybe the smartest course of action is to try to get the valve out of there, completely, and replace it with a PVC globe valve. Home Depot probably sells them. PVC would last a thousand years on that toilet.

It would ruin my fun, but it would work.

I also had an idea about rigging up a flex shaft to put the valve handle up at waist level, so people (mainly me) wouldn’t have to reach under the toilet to operate it. A PVC valve would probably be hard to connect to a flex shaft, and it would probably take a lot of torque to open and close it, and that would eventually ruin the shaft.

I like these venturi toilets much better than the old Galley Maids they replaced, but they are as temperamental as a doctor’s third wife.

Had a good day, even without machining.