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Grivel Tech Machine - stuck bolt removal

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 GarethSL 03 Jul 2018

The bolts on my tech machines are well and truly frozen, as if Stevie himself tightened them.

I've soaked them with DW40 but so far nothing is giving and I'm pretty close to shearing out the hexes. I'm using a simple allen key with a bit of pipe as a lever.

I have thought about applying some heat with a hair dryer, but am sceptical to its effect on the carbon fibre wrap and am not sure I can heat the head without doing the bolts too.

Does anyone have any tips before I get the drill?

On a side note, can someone confirm if replacement blades from Grivel come with new nuts and bolts too? 

 beardy mike 03 Jul 2018
In reply to GarethSL:

1) Is your allen key a good quality one or a piece of junk you got in a cheap set or worse still with an IKEA flat pack? If so, go and get the best allen key your money can buy. Cheap allen keys roun off easily, are manyfactured to poor tolerances and don't fit the socket as well and will wreck the bolt.

2) WD40 is a water displacer primarily and a lubricator second. Whilst at tool store buy a proper penetration fluid - soak it with this and leave for a few hours

3) try again.

4) if you round the socket completely, get an appropriately sized torx socket and hammer it into the now buggered socket and try again.

5) if this doesn't work, get a srew removal tool a bit like this https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/936c5cf1-376a-4f5e-853b-f81ec9914433_1.544...

You drill a hole in the bolt down it's centre. Then twist on of these in.

6) if this doesn't work, carefully drill out the core of the bolt and try to retap the holes.

7) if it really all goes horribly wrong,  you may be able to helicoil an oversized drill hole.

8) stick it on ebay and hope for the best. Only joking, don't do that, that would be a dick move.

OP GarethSL 03 Jul 2018
In reply to beardy mike:

Cheers mike!

> 1) Is your allen key a good quality one or a piece of junk you got in a cheap set or worse still with an IKEA flat pack? If so, go and get the best allen key your money can buy. Cheap allen keys roun off easily, are manyfactured to poor tolerances and don't fit the socket as well and will wreck the bolt.

It's "ok" but its the bolt that's shearing as opposed to the allen key.

> 2) WD40 is a water displacer primarily and a lubricator second. Whilst at tool store buy a proper penetration fluid - soak it with this and leave for a few hours

Will do!

Fortunately the picks are attached with nuts and bolts so I figure drilling off the head to the bolt should solve the issue. The problem being I don't have a metal bit big enough

 beardy mike 03 Jul 2018
In reply to GarethSL:

Yes I know it's the socket that is rounding but a swiss cheese allen key tends to wreck the bolt as well as the allen key. A good quality one fits nice and snug, meaning that the flats are doing the turning rather than the corners. In addition the key will be a hard steel meaning that everything is better supported. I used to think any allen key would be fine - then I found the light...

If its got a nut on the back, you could just grind off the nut or centrepunch the end of the bolt at the nut end and drill that side out - you've got plenty of opportunities here to proove your skill with a powertool.

 Smythson 04 Jul 2018
In reply to GarethSL:

As above with close fitting bit but an impact driver often helps. If you don't have access to one of these a cordless drill with variable torque settings can work too.

 Gawyllie 05 Jul 2018
In reply to GarethSL:

I got nuts and bolts with picks i ordered for mine a couple of years back

OP GarethSL 05 Jul 2018
In reply to Gawyllie:

Thanks for that, some websites advertise it some don't so just wanted to make sure


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