We all have that one expert in our families who own a complete toolbox, and familiar with all kinds of minor mechanical, and tool work, right? If that is you, fortunately, then this informative post can be a great guide for you. Ask why? Because today I am going to share five best ways for removing rounded nuts and bolts which becomes so challenging at times.
How to remove rounded nuts & bolts?
The rounded nuts and bolts can be so difficult to remove, the fault is not in hands of fastener bolts, nuts manufacturers, but it depends on the type of variable used, and in which product bolts have been used to make it firm, and stronger.
There comes a lot of variables when you remove bolts and nuts since there are different grades of bolts. Some of them may be rusted in, some of them may be thread locked in, and alike this, there are many different variables
The nut can be rounded off by using a badly fitting spanner, or it can be rounded off by being closed so tight. Keep scrolling down, and learn some amazing tricks of removing rounded bolts and nuts
1. Try Spray Penetrant
Apply some spray penetrant over nuts and bolts, this will loosen the thread slightly, and will give the best chance to take it out. Another option is, apply some heat to the nut or bolt using a blow torch. The heat can make bolt expand when it contracts, it can loosen the bond between bolt, threaded parts, or nut.
2.Set of Grip tight Sockets
The first thing you need to reach when go for rounded off nut / bolt is, the grip tight sockets, keep a set of it at home or work (wherever you do this type of work on frequent basis) This tight socket set comes with hardened steel pins on the inside that actually grip on the flats on the rounded off nut or bolt.
Simply put the socket on the ratchet, locate it on the rounded off nut or bolt, and you can easily undo that.
3.Try Using Mole Grips
You can also try gripping the nut or bolt with something that has serrated set of teeth like stilsons (also known as a pipe wrench, mole grips, or water pump pliers – as I discussed before there are plenty of variables which few of them aren’t able to use in some particular cases)
Sometimes you try working on machines which have movable parts, so you try to get that rounded off bolt out, so what you need to do is, move the rounded part. This will work in some examples, so go with mole grips.
Adjust them to nuts, and get them as tight as possible, once you loosen it, you can remove the bolt easily. Try water pump pliers, the good thing about these is the length of handles. You do get quite a lot of leverage.
4.Pair of Stilsons
One of the best tools for removing rounded off bolt and nuts is a pair of Stilson. These tools are specifically designed to grip round objects including; pipe with serrated teeth, so they are good at gripping round objects. Another main perk of using this tool is, the length of this tool is 18 inches long.
Simply put them on bolt or nut if you can get them on, simply press down, and it will open the bolt. Besides, you can also try cold chisel, and hammer which is a very good technique for generating a lot of force with it, this can undo majority of rounded off nuts or bolts even if it is closed for years
This is one of the best methods for removing anything like that especially if it stuck in there. Before you do this, put a pair of safety glasses on them, get the cold chisel, and a decent hammer. All you need to do is, take the chisel, get the point of it, so it gets on the top of the bolt like so. Hit it so it tries to spin the bolt out.
5.Weld-on The Nut
You don’t need to be a good welder to be able to do this, all you need to do is, take a nut (preferably a plain nut, so that is not galvanized and not zinc plated. This is a really simple technique. Take a nut, place it on top of the bolt, take a welding electrode, and weld in there.
Fill that up with molten metal. The heat generated from the welding process can also help to loosen the bolt. You will the nut glowing red-hot, this should easily enable you to remove the bolt, and in fact, the generated heat has loosened the thread.
Another notable advantage of using welder is, you can remove things like this. Take an example of a countersunk bolt where the center is rounded off, so the Allen key will not grip this at all. Take a plain nut, out that over the top, tap that in with welder, fill that up with weld and you will remove it easily
I hope you find the above mentioned ways for removing nuts and bolts very useful for you!