Removing stuck bolt 🔩

It’s all in the title, any help or how to on removing stuck / glued bolts?

I got these tiny can screws sealing a motor and I managed to twist a screwdriver head and partially round the 1.5 hex pattern. It’s a pain in the ass :expressionless:

Am not sure I should heat them because I risk heating the can and fry the magnets. Maybe with an iron tip?

Read somewhere that acetone / dissolvant could help but seeing how tight it is, I don’t see the liquid getting in.

So what are your pro tips?

You won’t come far with an iron. Ive held one to a Sk3 motor can screw for 10 minutes. After removing the iron i immediately could touch the screw…

Acetone does help somewhat. I use it to remove dried loctite from already unscrewed bolts. It won’t do magic but I’d give it a go.

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Thanks, I’ll try hoping for the best… :sob:

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What kind of head on the screw? Could you post a pic?

Superglue + bakingsoda trick could work. It depends on how hard it stucked…
Push the hex tool down in the srew. Add a bit of superglue while the tool is down. Add baking soda. Wait 1-3 min. Check if glue is hard. If it is. Try to remove the screw.

If it doesn’t work. Wd40 that bastard. Let it sit for a day and then try to unscrew it again.

If you don’t want to apply heat to the srew you could also try to hammer a flat screw driver into the hex head. Use a flat screw driver that is just a bit bigger then the hex

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:arrow_up: this

I have had very good luck with these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VFM3Q5Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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It’s that tiny mof**ker here, I got 8 of these to take down, all fixed with same strength ! Gotta soak it in wd40 right away

Nice find! How does it work, it “threads” counter clockwise into the head while unscrewing?

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The little drills turn counterclockwise and sometimes it comes out just by drilling the hole.

Otherwise, those things screw backwards into the hole you backwards-drilled and hopefully grab enough to turn the bolt backwards.

They’ve worked for me a few times, and once saved a high-value item that was otherwise going to be useless.

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What @b264 said

Those extractors work. However, for those tiny bolts, we have to try not to strip. If they don’t budge, heat and try a little penetrating oil

If you look up the max torque specs for hardware like this you’ll start to get an idea of how little they can be tightened. Then you’ll be able to gauge better if there’s gonna come out or if they’re gonna strip. Always use really good fitting bits

You can drill into that carefully and use the extractor but those small bolts will be a challenge. Add heat

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Those extractors works very well on bigger bolts. I do doubt theres enough material on that counter sunk screw head to work with.
Heat is the way to go here. Or drill it out and rethread it if needed.

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Just wanted to add that if you are afraid of heating it up, you could wrap a cold “wet” towel around the can and focus on heating just the screw head…

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You can try to use a dremel to cut a “minus” socket in it (try not to hurt the can though as much as possible), then use a flat screw-driver to take it out.

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I’ve cut a slit in bolts and used a screw driver.

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I see myself a Landwheel hub motor right there :wink:

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My favorite measure-of-last-resort is to get a good quality Torx driver bit that’s a little bigger than the stripped out hex hole, and pound that sucker in there, effectively broaching yourself a new torx drive.

My new favorite measure of nuclear last resort is to use my TIG welder to weld a piece of metal (rod, nut, bolt, whatever) to the head of the stuck fastener and then you have a lot more area to apply force, either with a wrench or pliers. Also works great on snapped off screws/bolts/studs. The very intense but localized heat also helps break things loose.

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