Can any bathroom fitters / builders ID this part?

woof woof

woof woof

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This may be a long shot but here goes...

Our toilet flush push button is mounted on a panel which was held in place by four little plastic clips each screwed to the panel with two screws. These clips each clasp onto a plastic post and thus hold the panel in place. Unfortunately all four clips have mysteriously broken and the panel has fallen off. I've taken one of the clips off and taken it to B&Q but they've never seen anything like it and of course typing "plastic clip" into Google brings up everything from sun glasses to pictures of cats but not what I want.

I hope that knowing what it's called will help, so does anyone know?

The thing itself is about 30mm long and the hole for the post is 7 or 8mm.

Does anyone know what this is called and where I can buy some?



 
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That looks like a miniature pipe clip. Not sure where you'd find replacements though. A temporary fix (that could last ages) that I would try would be to use washers under the screw heads and no not tighten the screws too much. Failing that, using mirror screws in the corners of the panel shouldn't be too unpleasing on the eyes.
 
woof woof said:
This may be a long shot but here goes...

Our toilet flush push button is mounted on a panel which was held in place by four little plastic clips each screwed to the panel with two screws. These clips each clasp onto a plastic post and thus hold the panel in place. Unfortunately all four clips have mysteriously broken and the panel has fallen off. I've taken one of the clips off and taken it to B&Q but they've never seen anything like it and of course typing "plastic clip" into Google brings up everything from sun glasses to pictures of cats but not what I want.

I hope that knowing what it's called will help, so does anyone know?

The thing itself is about 30mm long and the hole for the post is 7 or 8mm.

Does anyone know what this is called and where I can buy some?



Click to expand...








Finding the exact fitting might be difficult, but you could drill a countersunk hole in the centre of the fitting giving you a second fixing point, which would probably manage until you get the exact fitting. Hope this helps.
 
killwilly said:
Finding the exact fitting might be difficult, but you could drill a countersunk hole in the centre of the fitting giving you a second fixing point, which would probably manage until you get the exact fitting. Hope this helps.
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Drilling a central hole would let me mount a clip with just one central screw... but so far I haven't been able to find anything like this at this sort of size... Screwfix, B&Q, Amazon, ebay and Google etc just give an avalanche of useless crap including incredibly pictures of bloody cats! Grrrrr!!!!!! If these things go under a specific name knowing it would help :D
 
woof woof said:
Drilling a central hole would let me mount a clip with just one central screw... but so far I haven't been able to find anything like this at this sort of size... Screwfix, B&Q, Amazon, ebay and Google etc just give an avalanche of useless crap including incredibly pictures of bloody cats! Grrrrr!!!!!! If these things go under a specific name knowing it would help :D
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I meant drill a hole in the centre of the broken bracket, which would still allow for two screws, the original undamaged and the new centre position.
 
killwilly said:
I meant drill a hole in the centre of the broken bracket, which would still allow for two screws, the original undamaged and the new centre position.
Click to expand...

Ah, no, the clip is a complete write off as are the other three. This particular one has two problems, the split at the mounting hole isn't the major problem as I could remount it with a washer to clamp it in place but there's also a split in one of the arms so it wont clasp onto anything.

There do seem to be some similar clips available with just the one central in the middle of the clasping arms but the ones I've seen are much larger.
 
Yelkrub said:
Maybe these tool clips would work if you can't find the original
http://www.jhmbuttco.com/acatalog/info-80.06NCB.html
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YES!!!! :D

I think that might do it. It looks like these may just extend a little further into the cavity so I'll have to check and see if there's a couple of extra mm room to play with... but at 22p it's worth ordering a few :D

Ey By Gum.

Is there anything folk here don't know? :D
 
woof woof said:
YES!!!! :D

I think that might do it. It looks like these may just extend a little further into the cavity so I'll have to check and see if there's a couple of extra mm room to play with... but at 22p it's worth ordering a few :D

Ey By Gum.

Is there anything folk here don't know? :D
Click to expand...

They are for keeping decor fascias in place.
 
Thanks all.

The minimum spend on the linked site is £10 but using the descriptions of tool clip and Terry clip and 6mm I can get them in lots of places. There's one with just one central mounting hole on evil bay and I can get a pack of five for £4.11 with free postage so I'll go for that. I'm a bit worried that the one central mounting hole may not be quite enough as the screws are small and as all four of the original clips have broken it may be down to some flex every time the flush is pressed so I may add some no more nails, or maybe not. Maybe the nylon ones just aren't up to it and these metal ones will last better, that's what I'll hope for :D

Thanks a lot all, as I was really struggling to find these as I didn't know what they were called.
 
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woof woof said:
Thanks all.

The minimum spend on the linked site is £10 but using the descriptions of tool clip and Terry clip and 6mm I can get them in lots of places. There's one with just one central mounting hole on evil bay and I can get a pack of five for £4.11 with free postage so I'll go for that. I'm a bit worried that the one central mounting hole may not be quite enough as the screws are small and as all four of the original clips have broken it may be down to some flex every time the flush is pressed so I may add some no more nails, or maybe not. Maybe the nylon ones just aren't up to it and these metal ones will last better, that's what I'll hope for :D

Thanks a lot all, as I was really struggling to find these as I didn't know what they were called.
Click to expand...

If you have any problems with them let me know- I have some spare ones (there are always spare left over after fitting a kitchen/bathroom) in my garage, all with two holes.
I tend to use 16mm pan head screws when fitting them.
 
kendo1 said:
If you have any problems with them let me know- I have some spare ones (there are always spare left over after fitting a kitchen/bathroom) in my garage, all with two holes.
I tend to use 16mm pan head screws when fitting them.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer of help but I'll keep you as a last resort as I honestly don't want to be any trouble :D

The clips I bought off the internet arrived and are useless, they looked ok on line but in reality they're microscopic. I've emailed the supplier you provided a link too but as they're trade I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope they'll help and I'll report back.

This would be such a simple job if I had the clips...:D
 
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kendo1 said:
If you have any problems with them let me know- I have some spare ones (there are always spare left over after fitting a kitchen/bathroom) in my garage, all with two holes.
I tend to use 16mm pan head screws when fitting them.
Click to expand...
Hi again, Just had a reply back from Howdens and unfortunately they wont deal with me as I'm not trade so if you do have some clips could we do a deal for a little bag full?

As trades (I think) have to be done in the for sale section I could post a want ad????

Thanks.
 
woof woof said:
Hi again, Just had a reply back from Howdens and unfortunately they wont deal with me as I'm not trade so if you do have some clips could we do a deal for a little bag full?

As trades (I think) have to be done in the for sale section I could post a want ad????

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I'll look some out, free of charge :)

I'll PM you later once I find some. My garage is ... quite full, but I came across them the other day.

BTW, it's not a trade: I'm just sending you something...
 
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hehehe to the above :D

kendo1 said:
I'll look some out, free of charge :)

I'll PM you later once I find some. My garage is ... quite full, but I came across them the other day.
Click to expand...

Thanks again.

I had another go at tracking them down and they may be a standard part but I just can't find them so thanks again for the offer.

:D
 
woof woof said:
hehehe to the above :D



Thanks again.

I had another go at tracking them down and they may be a standard part but I just can't find them so thanks again for the offer.

:D
Click to expand...

I'll look them out tomorrow morning. Found one tonight!
 
kendo1 said:
I'll look them out tomorrow morning. Found one tonight!
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Great Stuff!

Actually, my cardboard temporary fix jamming the panel in place is holding up quite well and no one seems to have noticed... :D
 
Attach a thin metal base plate underneath it with 2 aligned drilled holes and you should be able to use it again.
 
Shadow said:
Attach a thin metal base plate underneath it with 2 aligned drilled holes and you should be able to use it again.
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Fraid not.

If the problem was just this one clip and the split at the mounting hole I could remount it with a washer but one of the arms is split and it wont grip the mounting post any more and the other three clips are all in a similarly unusable condition.

I can't really see how all four have failed but one possibility is that we've had quite a bit done which required multiple visits so it could be a case of ham fisted workmen being too rough or just wear and tear because the panel has been on and off more times than would normally be expected.
 
Alan, how heavy is the panel? Any possibility of using some magnetic catches?
 
woof woof said:
Great Stuff!

Actually, my cardboard temporary fix jamming the panel in place is holding up quite well and no one seems to have noticed... :D
Click to expand...



This message will self destruct after reading ;)
 
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... and hurry up and read it, the staff might be looking :rolleyes:
 
OldCarlos said:
Alan, how heavy is the panel? Any possibility of using some magnetic catches?
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The panel isn't too heavy but as the toilet push button is mounted on it and the toilet seat contacts it too whatever holds it in place has to resist these things. I don't think magnets would do it and luckily Ken had some clips :D
 
kendo1 said:
... and hurry up and read it, the staff might be looking :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Ken, the clips arrived! YaY! Golly these things seem hard to find... so I'm grateful for your help.

Take the old clips off, mark up and fit the new ones...



Push the panel back into place...



As the new clips are metal I hope they'll be harder wearing then the original plastic ones which all mysteriously broke... I can only assume it was a domino effect and that once one broke the strain increased on the rest and they all gave up in turn. Hopefully this fix will last a good few years :D

PS.
I forgot the really important stuff...

All pictures taken with a Panasonic GX7 and 17mm f1.8.
1st picture, f4, 1/60 ISO 1000.
2nd picture, f4, 1/60, ISO 250.

After all, this is a photography forum :D
 
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