Removing stuck screws, bolts & nuts - how-to info

[Joel_BC]

A bunch of methods for dealing with stuck screw or bolts:
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-P.../how-to-loosen-nuts-bolts-and-screws/View-All

This is intensive information on removing stuck or broken screws using a common screw extractor - five illustrated pages, each with short text:
http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/screw_extractor.htm

This is a short vid about using heat to loosen ( and back-off) rusted nuts corroded onto bolts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwKHSvKfnHI

 

[Joel_BC]

This is an interesting new one, for me. I was on a DIY site, and someone had asked a question about removing a stuck machine screw - the screw being tightened down overly tightly into a metal device or object. I believe this might be more appropriate to screws rather than bolts, which can possibly often be too large for this technique to work very well.

I haven't yet tried it, myself, but this is how te technique, using canned compressed air, was written up:

You want to freeze the screw to make the metal of the screw contract and loosen up. You could get a spray can of "canned air". Use the "straw" nozzle. Wear some leather work gloves and some eye protection

Turn the can upside down and spray the screw real good (turning the can upside down makes the can shoot straight liquid nitrogen). Make sure not to make any skin contact with the liquid nitrogen or it will burn you.

Once the screw is nice and frozen, quickly use your screwdriver and break the screw free of its tightness and remove it.

So it's a thermal method (as was the third one for which I gave a link, above) - except this one uses extreme cold, rather than extreme heat.

 

[Whatugawkinat]

Ah, beautiful. I just stumbled upon this post and checked out the links. I was having some serious issues with a stripped exhaust bolt (phillips head) on the utility quad I'm restoring...never thought to use a file to flatten the edge before Good, very useful information there. I might just try that now actually...

UPDATE: I'll be damned...that sucker came right off in no time. Can't believe that worked Sincerely, thank you!

 

[Denim Deb]

Joel, thanks for that link. I remember that thread, but didn't recall that it had info on getting screws out of the wood. I think I need to get me one of those screw extractors. That looks like it would work.

 

[ducks4you]

GREAT thread. I just bought a kit with bits to remove stripped screws. My house is ~ 100yo, so we have too many of them. Great reference articles, too.

 

[Joel_BC]

Here's a very helpful video with a variant on the old 'heat the nut' method. This variant (adding paraffin wax in a certain way) was new to me and makes a lot of sense. It's demonstrated nicely in the vid...

 

[Icu4dzs]

One of the more successful things I have done was to spray the rusted bolt with Liquid Wrench or Blaster PB. Then (and this is the secret)...GO AWAY and leave it alone for a day or so. Since there is no shortage of things to do on my farm, I can easily find something else to do until it is time to come back and try the bolt again. Every once in a while I have to spray it again, but usually the penetrating oil has been able to get where it was meant to go and things get easier. It doesn't ALWAYs work, but it has enough times to prefer that rather than take a torch and burn something (including myself).
YMMV
Cheers,
Trim sends

 

[Denim Deb]

Yeah, you don't want to burn yourself. That doesn't help get the nut off!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Yeah, the walk away part is the hardest for DH.
The best he could do was change the brake pads on the back tires before going back to the front one with the stuck bolt...

 

[Joel_BC]

Thanks, Trim. I've had occasion to try to separate various lengths of galvanized steel water pipe from the fittings joining them. I've used the best penetrating oil that I can obtain locally.

Even sometimes doing two applications of penetrating oil, and waiting 24-30 hours - I've still been unable to unscrew the pieces! This is when using 16"-handled pipe wrenches.

So actually, this problem is what has made me search for other methods to separate threaded (& rusted) parts - not so much problems with bolts & nuts.

A day (or longer) is a long time to wait if the results are going to be nil.