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Tips in a Pinch: Which Tool Is Best to Loosen a Tight Fastener?
Whether removing a nut or screw temporarily or permanently, loosening a fastener is usually routine and relatively quick. Sometimes, however, a fastener holds on a bit too tightly. The culprit may be corrosion, a stripped or rounded head or just simple over-tightening. Whatever the cause, releasing a tight fastener is always much easier with the right tool.
When Regular Wrenches Work
Wrenches are a first line of attack with nuts and bolts that should be removable by hand. However, a standard wrench may be no match for a stubbornly stuck fastener. In cases like these, an extra long wrench can offer added torque to make that tight nut turn.
Adjustable wrenches are generally a poor choice when it comes to working with difficult tight fasteners. This is because it can be a challenge to keep a tight enough hold on the nut or bolt to avoid slipping and rounding off the head.
Extracting a Stripped Screw
Using a screw extractor is a quick and affordable solution to removing most screws that are stripped or otherwise too damaged to handle with a screwdriver. Screw extractor kits contain extractors for the most common sizes of screws, and no sensible mechanic or carpenter would be without at least one.
Using a screw extractor on a stripped or otherwise difficult screw involves seating the right size of extractor firmly into a small pilot hole that’s been drilled in the head of the screw, then rotating the extractor counterclockwise like a screwdriver. The extractor bites into the screw, and the screw turns when the extractor does. Different types of screws will need different extractors, so it’s important to carefully select extractors on the basis of the types of fasteners they are designed to handle.
Loosening Lug Nuts
Cross-shaped or four-way lug wrenches are old-fashioned tools with utility that never goes out of style. Their length translates to leverage you can use to your advantage, and four strong arms give you multiple options for gripping nuts of different sizes. When changing a tire turns into a battle due to a tight lug nut, a standard lug wrench will be the first weapon of choice. Quality wrenches will offer high-quality steel construction, four standard lug head sizes, and 20 inches of length for excellent leverage.
Bring in the Breaker Bar
When fighting a frozen nut or bolt, which tool is best for breaking loose a tight fastener usually boils down to leverage. In practical terms, leverage is length that lends you some extra strength. A typical breaker bar is 24 inches long, though they are often found in 18 and 30-inch lengths as well. The bar is affixed to a drive head that is commonly ½ or ⅜ inch in diameter, matching common nut sizes. A number of other drive sizes are also available. The bar hugely multiplies the torque that can be applied to a frozen fastener, potentially making a breaker bar an even better tool for removing extra tight lug nuts than a lug wrench.
Cracking the Hardest Nuts
A specialized tool called a nut splitter, also known as a nut-cracker, can pop loose even the most stubbornly stuck nuts. The catch is that it does so by breaking or cutting the nut, destroying it in the process of removing it. A nut splitter is most often a tool of last resort, used when all hope of removing the nut in one piece through normal means has been lost.
A blade fitted inside of the ring head of a nut splitter will grab the uncooperative nut in question and either grip it tightly enough to remove it or – more likely – cut or break it off. A manual nut splitter may be good enough for the average person’s garage, but hydraulic versions offer more power to use against the tightest fasteners.
Impact Drivers and Wrenches
Impact drivers and impact wrenches are the go-to tools when you’re looking for some extra force to motivate a stubborn fastener to release. The magic of impact tools lies in how they can turn a straightforward force applied to one end of the tool into a powerful twisting motion at the other end.
A manual impact driver relies on the impact force being applied by hand to one end of the tool by hitting it with a hammer. The impact driver is constructed so that the force of the hammer blow is translated into torque which turns a rotating attachment on the other end of the driver. By contrast, an impact wrench is powered by either air or electricity instead of a strong arm wielding a hammer.
A good manual impact driver and set of impact sockets will probably be sufficient for standard screws and other small fasteners. On the other hand, if you regularly struggle with bigger bolts, you may want to invest in an impact wrench.
Fired-Up Fasteners
The careful application of heat can help unfreeze a bolt or nut, making the job of twisting it out noticeably easier. This is one reason why a butane torch is a fairly common tool to find in garages and shops around the world. Obviously, applying high heat is not appropriate or safe in every circumstance, but heating a tight fastener is a time-tested way of making it more cooperative. The key is to use reasonable care while heating the fastener to nearly red hot, then removing it while it is still hot.
Relying on a gas-powered flame with all its associated risks is not the only option for heating up a too-tight bolt. Induction heating units provide an electric option that involves applying a heating element to the stuck fastener instead of a flame. The one downside of these tools is that they can sometimes carry a price tag that doesn’t make sense if they’ll only be used infrequently. Ultimately, which tool is best for breaking loose a tight fastener may come down to price.
A wide variety of options exist to make removing a tight fastener easier and more efficient, saving time and frustration. Fasteners hold the world together, but when the time comes to separate what has been joined, some fasteners don’t want to give up the job! To find the fasteners that do the job right, shop Rogo Fastener’s impressive inventory.
Sources:
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