O rings.

I have just spent a frustrating morning doing the rounds of plumbers' merchants, Screwfix, BML Hayley, Charlie's and the like.

Searching for 2 sizes of replacement O rings for the spout of our kitchen mixer tap.

I have 2 kits in the workshop, containing around 1000 O rings - NBG!

Plumb Centre (Wolsely Ltd) told me they no longer stock O rings as there are too many non-standard sizes out there.

The rings are of surprisingly small cross section and unfortunately are too damaged and stretched for reliable measurement.

Hey ho, I will have to measure the seats and get some made - but where do I get less than 1000?

Could you not cut one of your kit O rings to size and superglue the ends as you would with a splicing kit?

I've just bought 5 nitrile 'O' rings for £2.64 inc postage from,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/sealsuppliesuk/Nitrile/_i.html?_storecat=24158175014

35mm dia X 3mm section, much too big for you but a quick look shows them down to 1mm i/dia X 1mm section, other  materials available as well.

Edited By Sandgrounder on 11/09/2019 14:27:56

They used to sell kits with various sizes of cord, a jig and some glue. I wonder if they still sell them?

You could have a look at the Simply Bearings website, you might find what you need there.

Neil

Hi if you Google Superseal .co.uk, who publish a pdf of ring size charts you should be able to find the reference number for any O ring you need. You will certainly then find them on Ebay as suggested by Sandgrounder,

HTH Dave

There are quite a few online suppliers of 'O' rings where you can buy 1, 2 or as many as you want, of nearly every size under the sun. Plumb Centre saying there 'too many non-standard' sizes is pure rubbish, do they have there own standards I wonder.

The online suppliers I use seem to have bearings, belts, or bearings in there web address.

If you have the old ring its usually possible to work out what its original size is. Some interpretation of carefully taken measurements might be needed to differentiate between say cross sections of 3.5mm and 3.53mm but with knowledge of the ID and OD its usually possible to work out whether it came from a metric or imperial range.

Ian P

Welcome to the club, I too have two boxes of O rings which seem to fit everything except the job in question.

Trying to find one for a shower unit is not a job for the faint hearted, they are either too big or too small or too thick.

Needless to say, your local plumbing shop does not stock them and your shower has been replaced by a "New" model which has little in common with the model you have.

How do I know all this ? Don't even ask !!

Might find a use for my large stock of O rings somewhere along the line, for now, they are happy in their snug little boxes, knowing that they are unlikely to be disturbed any time soon.

There is a company called airport bearings at Nottingham which carry all size o rings web site www.ABCO.co.uk try them.

David

Bearing Boys sell 1mtr lengths of Nitrile O ring cord in a range of diameters, as mentioned some superglue and you can make your own...dead easy.

Send me the sizes and I will check my stock. I have never heard of a non standard size O ring and I have been working with them for over 45 years!

Most of the sizes are available on ebay, I believe the dimensions are inside diameter and diameter of the rubber. I have bought nitrile, EDPM and viton o rings. Recently, I bought a metre of 7mm nitrile to make a buffer stop for a mill quill, and had to buy the correct type of super glue when the stuff I had would not glue it.