How Much Putty? How Much to Tighten?
I have a similar problem now. On a newly installed bathtub, I'm putting in a PVC drain "shoe" that has a rubber gasket and a metal screw-in drain. There are leaks. I've used plumber's putty. I've tightened it with a wrench.
By the way, I'm using the handles of an adjustable wrench fit down into the strainer/drain and I use a big monkey wrench to turn the handles to tighten the drain shoe. It works nicely but I know there are better solutions.
My questions are:
1. I put tons of putty in and almost all of it squeezed out.
2. I tightened this assembly and I'm wondering if I can tighten it so hard the gasket deforms? I'm worried about breaking the tub (Americast), too, though that seems unlikely since I'm exerting a symmetric pressure on the drain area.
Of course, breaking it now while its still not completely installed is better than doing so later when I get the surround installed. The question is important though - how tightly can I tighten down on the basket / drain shoe?
What if the water is leaking past the threads on of the PVC shoe instead of past the gasket?
Can I put plumber's putty on the gasket or is that a bad idea? What about a layer of it on the drain shoe where the gasket meets it?
I've tried teflon tape on the pipe threads, too, to no avail....