Basket Strainer Nightmare

I am installing a new kitchen sink, faucet, and basket strainer, as well as all the plumbing underneath. At the local hardware store, they have metal basket strainer assemblies and plastic ones. The metal strainers have four holes in the bottom and the plastic ones have three. Since all of my basket strainer wrenches are made for the four hole strainers, I bought the metal one. It installed easy enough with my "smart dumbell" holding the strainer in place while I tightened the locknut with my strainer locknut wrench. All was wonderful with the world until I tried connecting the flanged tailpiece to the bottom of the strainer.

The connection to the strainer consists of a plastic flanged tailpiece, a nylon insert washer, and a metal nut, which "should" screw on to the metal threads of the strainer. Problem is, it doesn't. This nut is not big enough to accommodate the flanged tailpiece and the nylon insert washer. So, I can't even get the nut started. Without the nylon insert, it tightens up nicely, but leaks like a sieve, even with the strainer threads wrapped in teflon tape. I'm thinking now that I should have bought the plastic strainer assembly, since I'm using plastic pipe. I think you can even use a plastic nut with the plastic assembly.

Anyone else had this problem before?

Thanks,
Eric

nut

Either the strainer's threads are defective, or you need a different nut. Some of the nuts that come with the strainers are very shallow, but a standard one works fine.

Repeat, get a deeper nut.

Thanks alot. I'll see if the local hardware store (we have no Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) sells an individual metal nut that is deeper and has the same threads. But I already told them about the problem, and they are the ones who said to just leave out the nylon insert and use teflon tape instead. We know how that worked out!!

Eric

To follow up, I found that the "standard metal nut" was exactly the same as the one that came with the strainer assembly. I ended up buying a cheap plastic strainer assembly, which came with a deeper PVC nut. I swapped out the metal nut for the plastic, and now I'm leak-free.