Valves, bolts & nuts

[Jack8rkin]

Hello everybody!

Could you please tell me the right term for the following:

I have a valve and a hand wheel installed on it for opening/closing. When opening, I need to turn the handwheel to the point where it stops turning and apply some force to lock the upper seal. What should I say here?
"Turn the hadwheel home" or maybe
"Turn the handwheel firmly"?
Or?

What about bolts and nuts? When I tighten a nut on a bolt, I turn it till it stops turning and apply some force to ensure it is firmly secured.
Should it be:
"Turn the nut home with the wrench." or
"Turn the nut firmly with the wrench."
Or?

Thank you

 

[BobK]

The word you are looking for is 'fingertight'. When tightening a bolt, you do it up until it's fingertight and then use a tool (Br Eng 'spanner', Am Eng 'wrench'*) to tighten it further. If you want to be precise about how much you tighten it, you use a torque wrench.

Incidentally, the collocation is 'nuts and bolts'; 'bolts and nuts' sounds stilted in most contexts.

b

PS* It's not quite as easy as this. Some tools (torque wrench, monkey-wrench and Mole wrench spring to mind) use the word 'wrench' in Br Eng. But the generic word is 'spanner'. In fact, an advertisement (a postal franking slogan) that proclaimed 'Newport, home of the Mole wrench' had to be changed - when people objected to a national carrier (which the GPO then was) advertising a commercial product by name - to 'Newport, home of the self-adjusting spanner'.

 

[Jack8rkin]

Thank you. That is very interesting and informative!

But this not exactly the word I'm looking for.
Maybe I did not expeain myself clearly enough.

In Russian there is an expression, which in rough translation might sound as "up to the stop". It denotes the degree of tightening with the meaning that the handwheel of the valve (or something similar to it) does not want to turn or move any longer if certain force is applied by hand (because the thread of the stem does not let it go, or because some part of it comes to a certain stopping member in the structure). So, can I say "turn the handwheel home" or will it sound better if I say "turn the handwheel up to the stop"?

 

[BobK]

That's exactly what 'fingertight' means. You can if you like say 'Turn the <whatever> until it's fingertight.' But there is not a 'stop' in a correctly threaded bolt; just degrees of tightness. My 'fingertight' may not be the same as your 'fingertight'.

b

 

[Jack8rkin]

Ok . I got it about the nuts&bolts and threaded things.
Can I say "fingertight" about the handwheel of a valve (and the valve has terminal positions of the stem and shutoff member inside it) if the valve is 3 feet high and the handwheel is 1.5 feet diameter and I turn it with my both arms (and the gland is so hardly packed that the handwheel hardly moves)?

 

[BobK]

Ok . I got it about the nuts&bolts and threaded things.
Can I say "fingertight" about the handwheel of a valve (and the valve has terminal positions of the stem and shutoff member inside it) if the valve is 3 feet high and the handwheel is 1.5 feet diameter and I turn it with my both arms (and the gland is so hardly packed that the handwheel hardly moves)?

I don't think so; 'fingertight' only seems appropriate if you're using just your fingers [and thumb].. Shakespeare used a word that some people (but not I) would think appropriate in Henry V - 'screw your courage to the sticking-point'. But in the case of your valve I would say 'close the valve as tightly as you can by...'.

b

 

[Jack8rkin]

I don't think so; 'fingertight' only seems appropriate if you're using just your fingers [and thumb].. Shakespeare used a word that some people (but not I) would think appropriate in Henry V - 'screw your courage to the sticking-point'. But in the case of your valve I would say 'close the valve as tightly as you can by...'.

b

Thank you!
Imagine we are writing a manual, what language would be appropriate in this case?
In our English-Russian dictinoaries I have come across two words, which are 'home' and 'firmly'. Another expression goes like:

"The connector is inserted​

​

​

​

up to the stop at the rear."

Please, help!

Thank you again​

 

[5jj]

Shakespeare used a word that some people (but not I) would think appropriate in Henry V - 'screw your courage to the sticking-point'.

Sticking place - Macbeth?

 

[Raymott]

Thank you!
Imagine we are writing a manual, what language would be appropriate in this case?
In our English-Russian dictinoaries I have come across two words, which are 'home' and 'firmly'. Another expression goes like:

"The connector is inserted

​

​

up to the stop at the rear."​

Please, help!​

Thank you again​

"Firmly" seems to cover it.
"Tighten it firmly by hand" seems understandable enough to me. It means that it doesn't have to be as tight as would require a special tool, but it must be hand-tight.​

As Bob says, there's no "stop" when tightening something - it just becomes progressively more difficult to tighten any further (perhaps exponentially) until it breaks, or you break!
"Home" also has connotations of a stop. You can't tighten or pull or push something "home" unless it has a home - a natural end point.​

 

[Jack8rkin]

Got it! Thank you a lot!:-D

You used the word "hand-tight". Is it common?
Can I use it in a manual?

As I see it, Russian and English understanding here is different. As I mentioned, Russians use the expression "up to the stop", though technically speaking (and I agree to that) there is no stop -- this is just you and the valve and the strength of both competing. The "up to the stop" degree of force is different for different people and only means that you should stop when the handwheel does not want to go any further (with applying some force to check if it's just jammed a little).

Thank you very much, you helped a lot!

 

[Raymott]

Got it! Thank you a lot!:-D

You used the word "hand-tight". Is it common?
I'm not sure. Most of the instructions I seem to get are written in Japlish.
Can I use it in a manual?

I would understand it.