If earlier the sealing tape was used mainly by plumbers, today this material can be found in almost every apartment in a toolbox. This tape is made of thin fluoroplastic.
The advantages of fum tape are that it is heat-resistant and elastic. In addition, when using this material, the connection can be easily disassembled in the future.
How, nevertheless, to reel it, that there would be no consequences?
Leaks in a threaded connection can also appear due to the tape, but often this happens due to gross mistakes made during the winding process.
Experienced plumbers highlight a number of disadvantages of fum tape, and also point out mistakes made by non-professionals:
- 1. In the process of winding, the tape delaminates into thin strips, which makes it problematic to correctly perform the work.
- 2. Fum tape is electrified, before working with it, you need to slightly moisten your fingers. Then the seal will not stick to your hands and curl up in the form of a spiral.
- 3. The next drawback of the tape is that it cannot be aligned. If, for example, after winding, you need to unscrew the connection a little in order to adjust it. As a result, the connection will not be sealed, leaks will occur.
- 4. For each thread, you need to select a specific fum tape. The thickness is determined by the thread pitch. If the thread is with a small pitch, then the fum tape must be taken of a large thickness.
If you do not wind or rewind a little, then problems will certainly arise during the operation of the connection. Many people believe that with a large number of skeins, the fum tape will not slip. But this is not the case.
It is necessary to wind the seal along the thread. Otherwise, the fum tape will slip and cause leakage.
Winding should be done with little effort, without overtightening the seal. The tape should stretch slightly and fall into the threads. In addition, each subsequent layer of tape should overlap the previous one by half.
The final girth should be done slightly above the end of the thread. Then the seal will definitely not slip.
The optimal number of turns is from 8 to 10. If the tape is 19 millimeters wide, 0.2 millimeters thick, then 5 turns will be enough for an inch thread. If everything is done correctly, then the first couple of turns must be tightened manually. And then arm yourself with a key to make the effort great.
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