Nipple Wrenches?

[Gtek]

I am tired of buying the soft junk over and over. Any nipple wrench aficionados out there care to share? I know of the drill rod and grade 8 bolt route and capable, but a phone call or online and a little plastic slap is an easy option. Any experience with ones (cap and ball size .185") from the Possible Shop, Made in USA and the Pedersoli brands?

[ogre]

Perhaps a professional wrestler's website would be of help.

[frogleg]

I bought mine from Track of the Wolf and so far they have worked fine. But I use anti seize on the threads and just snug them.

[wildwilly]

I took a nipple with me to ACE hardware and bought a 1/4" deep socket and a T-handle. With a Dremel tool I modified a couple of sockets to fit different types of nipples.

[Sasquatch-1]

I friend made one from an old socket to get a nipple out of a Pietta cylinder using an impact wrench. It was stuck and I broke a screw extractor off in it. Don't know what size the socket was but should be easy to match up.

For general use I bought one of the ones that has the wedge pin puller built into it.

[mooman76]

I took a nipple with me to ACE hardware and bought a 1/4" deep socket and a T-handle. With a Dremel tool I modified a couple of sockets to fit different types of nipples.

+1 here. Easy to make and practically free. Most people have some old small sockets laying around. I use a 1/4 drive breaker bar.

[TyGuy]

I picked up a revolver that had stubborn nipples a while back. Really wanted to try it out but didn’t have the right sized wrench. I drilled out the tip of an old bolt to match the nipple then ground it down until it cleared the cylinder and dremeled a slot in it. Used with a matching box end wrench on the head of the bolt and the nipples broke loose with relative ease. Now I just use the bolt by hand when tightening them and they come back out without issue.

I made a similar redneck tool to adjust front sights for my Comblock rifles. As a mechanic I have plenty of old bolts laying around. They aren’t glamorous but they work, they’re free, and I don’t have to wait for shipping and hope I get something that doesn’t bend or break the first time I use it.

That said, the socket trick is much simpler and likely significantly stronger.

[KCSO]

A 1/4 inch socket with a slot cut in works well and the bonus is that any wrench will fit.

[Mr Peabody]

I bought mine from Track of the Wolf and so far they have worked fine. But I use anti seize on the threads and just snug them.

One hundred percent on that!

[Gtek]

Thanks for replies and input, not a newbie here. Just getting into a pile of parts with several cylinders that are new unfired and no rust but still appear glued. Started in mill vise on press after weeks of wet soak, 3rd nipple wiped slot then proceed to killing second one. The two wrenches I have had for who knows how long and how many times used and I would think are old CVA wrenches, file drag found them butter soft. A Mill and two Lathes and probably poor excuses lives here but- Does anyone else find that more age, more stuff, less time? Was just wondering if anyone had purchased from the real smoke pole stores and were happy with said hardened made in USA stuff.

[Geezer in NH]

these work great!!!!

https://www.tdcmfg.com/product-page/ratcheting-nipple-wrench

buy 1 full and get the other heads

[Maven]

What Geezer in NH said!

[Tar Heel]

I bought mine from Track of the Wolf and so far they have worked fine. But I use anti seize on the threads and just snug them.

Same here. Have about 6 different ones. I always remove the nipples when cleaning and put choke tube lube on the threads when inserting them back into the cylinder. There is NO NEED to torque the things with 800 foot pounds of torque. Just snug em in there till they stop turning. Nipples on used guns that have never been removed for cleaning I just put an EZ Out in there and do the deed. I then chase the threads and install new nipples. Bada bing bada boom.

[Hellgate]

The ratcheting wrench is a very good one. Also I taptaptaptap....... the top of the wrench with a small hammer while torquing on the wrench. This is after using a penetrating oil like Kroil or an acetone/ATF mix to loosen the threads with the cylinder in a padded vise.

[Gtek]

They were soaked in Acetone and DexIII for over two weeks in Mason jar, as stated no newbie here! The 60' 44 cylinder they spun right out, the 36 62' New police not so much. Removed nipples show nothing of rust with a black oxide type finish, looking at cylinder threads they are red and dusty with oxide and just stuck. They are also some thin little boogers on 36 compared to 44 cylinder, both .185"'s but some height thickness difference in external body. Ordered Nash with heads but seen OD may be issue on 36 but that's an easy one, we will see.

[indian joe]

They were soaked in Acetone and DexIII for over two weeks in Mason jar, as stated no newbie here! The 60' 44 cylinder they spun right out, the 36 62' New police not so much. Removed nipples show nothing of rust with a black oxide type finish, looking at cylinder threads they are red and dusty with oxide and just stuck. They are also some thin little boogers on 36 compared to 44 cylinder, both .185"'s but some height thickness difference in external body. Ordered Nash with heads but seen OD may be issue on 36 but that's an easy one, we will see.

Had a revolver cylinder I wrecked a couple of good wrenches on, by then the nipples had rounded some and wouldnt grip .
1)I made a new wrench from a grade eight bolt
2) then a piece of 3x1 wood you fit two upright dowell pins that the cylinder drops over to stop it turning
3) hold the wood piece firm in the drill vyce, with the cylinder over the pins, nipple wrench in the drill chuck, lean on that sucker while you turn the chucked nipple wrench with a spanner - I had two nipples would not shift any other way - the first one gave a distinct crack when it let go but they both gave up without further trouble - had tried every other dang thing including using an impact wrench - weeks of soaking etc .

[Buzzard II]

My head mechanic made me some rifle nipple wrenches from Snap-On sockets. They fit and they worked way better than the ones I purchased and they don't break.

[dondiego]

Never Seize thread release agents are good to apply to nipple threads and other gun screws. I use 2 kinds, one contains suspended copper and the other contains nickel. Use them on every thread that you want to remove some day and you will be happy.

[Gtrubicon]

I made one out of a 6mm nut driver last weekend, took less than 5 minutes and works great.

[Gtek]

Found a file in collection that cut a perfect .185" slot. Cut deeper than needed and then chucked in lathe and trimmed to perfect seating depth. Light chamfer and polish, heated and dipped, back in vise on press, pop, pop, pop! No sign of any oxidation on nipples, external threads in cylinder holes had grown orange. Ran old bore brush, cleaned, lubed and they are slick and smooth now. Lot of variance in external dimensions on these things throughout different manufacturers, add documented nipple wrench collection to the pile!

[farmbif]

I never understood why they couldn't just nipples 6 point so a thin wall socket would fit like a grease zerk. I gave up trying to get them out of my 1851 pietta

[fastdadio]

I never understood why they couldn't just nipples 6 point so a thin wall socket would fit like a grease zerk. I gave up trying to get them out of my 1851 pietta

I have a .44 cal. smooth bore double barrel with 5/16" six point pattern nipples. Came with the gun. Never seen any others before or since. I like them a lot. I might be able to find a part number if I can find the manual that came with it.....?285560285561

[mazo kid]

I ruined 3 nipple wrenches trying to remove nipples from an original '58 Remington after the nipples had soaked in Kroil a couple of days. I made a wrench from a 1/4" drive deep socket, slotted it so it fit SNUG over the nipple, used a 1/4" impact driver, and they all came out easily. Before installing the new nipples (Lodgewood.com) I put a tiny bit of Anti Seize on the threads. The reason for replacing the original nipples is that they were battered. As others have stated, any grease on the screw threads will make future removal easy. And you don't need a 2 foot cheater bar to tighten parts, just snug them.

[Gtek]

Well the new wrench arrived today with two bits. the pistol fits really well on the 44's but a little drag OD and deep on 62'. I think I am going to get one more pistol bit and introduce it to lathe head and a stone, a couple knocked off OD and depth and it should be perfect.