[USEYOURHEAD]

I bought a Plumbcraft spray difuser at Walmart. It is plastic. I just spent 2 hours trying to screw the white plastic male part into the female (metal)faucet.

I think the threads are damaged (or not smooth) on the faucet side. I was able to screw the exact same piece from my old aerator back into the faucet. But I accidently screwed the female part OF THE SWIVEL PIECE ... on a little bit crooked and now I can't get it apart.

A. Are there some tricks I could try to make joining the plastic and metal male and female parts to ease the crummy threads ... like any of the following?
-spray with oil?
-clean with CLR?
-scrub with steel wool
-run hot water to expand faucet

B. Tools?
What tools should I use to screw and unscrew the pieces? Right now I'm using needle noise plier and fingers. I especially can't get ahold of the two parts I now have crooked. I'm confused which is now right-tighty-lefty-loosey.

C. Leak
To avoid leaks - should I use vasoline or something to make sure the seal is good?

I never thought this would be so hard. I don't remember having so much trouble before.

Maybe I should go to the hardware store and buy a more expensive aerator.

Help!!!

Useyourhead

[the_man]

go buy a metal one. plastic to metal will cross thread easily if they aren't lined up perfectly. Also, take the original aerator to the hardware store with you so you can match the thread count on the faucet. HD and Lowes have a guide you can screw the original to so you can get the right one

[USEYOURHEAD]

Thank you. I should have gone to a hardware store not a Mass Merch.

Good to know it's just not that I'm a big dummy.

I thought ... surely it shouldn't be this hard to screw something on.

I'm learning my lesson ... sometimes it's a waste of time to try to make something work (for hours) that should only take 1 minute.

Appreciate your help.