CITY_WATER_SHUT

JUST REMEMBER TO BE CERTIFIED BY THE WATER AND CITY BEFORE USING ANY TOOL ON THEIR SYSTEM.

For public water what you want is a street main shutoff key which is a 3~4' long rod with a T handle and forked sort of end. I recently bought one at Lowes for 12.50, if you can't find it at home/hardware stores a plumbing supply will definitely have it at about 15~25 dollars.

It is made by Orbit if that is a help- I saw it near underground sprinkler supplies in the plumbing dept

The end of a commercial meter key is a "U" shaped piece welded onto a long rod. This photo from Google Images shows a commercially produced key on the shut off valve. Most commercial keys are painted black.

This is my finished key that I made from six short sections of various kinds of tubing plus the piece for the handle. The door knob gives you and idea of its length. Because our meter is deeper than usual, I needed a longer key than is usually found in the local hardware store.

A note on use of the water meter key: In our part of Idaho we have little rainfall. Our water for irrigating our lawns comes through a system of underground piping about 10 inches in diameter. It is fed by water in reservoirs from spring snow melt in the mountains. Once a week we open the valves in the backyard and flood the entire lawn with about 3 inches of water. The meter box fills with irrigation water and the shut off valve silts over so that it is not visible. My longer meter key is handy for poking around to find the shut off valve in the muddy silt.

To make the key end I attached a 10 inch abrasive cutting wheel to an arbor and manually worked the end of a 1 inch piece of pipe against the edge of the wheel until I had a slot that would fit over the shut off valve in our water box. That would have been sufficient, but I wanted to add a little leverage and make the key easier to align on the shut off valve. So, I welded two small pieces of strap iron onto the end of the pipe.

OTHER NOTES:

Great and useful project. I needed one but I just cut a slot in 1/4" thick metal bar I had that was an inch wide. Fit perfectly. Nice when you can make a needed tool out of whatever you have on hand and it works well.

EDDYVILLE RACEWAY

Track Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 3260 Merino Avenue Oskaloosa, Iowa. 52577

Mailing Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 2462 Highway 163 Pella, Iowa 50219

Track Phone - 641.969.5596
manager@eddyvilleraceway.com

EDDYVILLE RACEWAY

Track Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 3260 Merino Avenue Oskaloosa, Iowa. 52577 Mailing Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 2462 Highway 163 Pella, Iowa 50219 Track Phone - 641.969.5596 manager@eddyvilleraceway.com

Track Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 3260 Merino Avenue Oskaloosa, Iowa. 52577

Mailing Address: Eddyville Raceway Park 2462 Highway 163 Pella, Iowa 50219

Track Phone - 641.969.5596
manager@eddyvilleraceway.com