A rusty F connector had me pulling my hair out until I tried the heat trick

Spent 45 minutes on a roof in Tucson fighting a corroded fitting that kept giving me bad signal readings, then a buddy from the yard told me to hit it with a lighter for 10 seconds before wrenching it, and it spun right off, so now I'm wondering if anyone else carries a torch just for this or am I overthinking it?

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the_miles14d ago

Sort of a trick, but you gotta be careful with the heat part. The lighter works because it breaks up the corrosion between the threads, but if you hit it too long you can melt the dielectric inside the connector and then you're swapping the whole cable anyway. I usually keep a small butane torch in my bag for seized fittings, but 10 seconds is about the max I'd go on anything with plastic in it. Also, a little penetrating oil after it cools down does the same job most of the time, just takes patience.