The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143025   Message #3303214
Posted By: Rapparee
06-Feb-12 - 02:47 PM
Thread Name: BS: How to remove faucet handle
Subject: RE: BS: How to remove faucet handle
Weeeeeeeell...you could maybe perhaps kinda have some stump dissolver around? The kind you pour into a stump to dissolve it? If you do, check the ingredients. It's very very possible that it's potassium nitrate (KNO3). If it is, pour a bunch into a CERAMIC bowl and crush it with a wooden ball or anything non-metal. When you've got a bunch ground up, mix it about 75% to 25% sugar -- plain ol' white sugar will work fine. If you feel like, add a tablespoon or two of aluminum powder (file it off old aluminum) and mix well.

Mix with a tiny amount of plain old Vaseline, just enough to get it to hold together. Pack this around the faucet stem, stick in a fuse (a match will work), light it, and see what happens.

Of course your house will burn down, as I mentioned earlier, but what the heck.

(It's a lot safer to grind the potassium nitrate when it's a water-wet paste and then let it dry IN THE SUN, but I assume you're in a bit of a rush.)