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stripped allen head removal


washguy

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sometimes we strip out an allenhead cause they are mostly cheap china crap...and when the allen wrench boogers the head what to do? Well if you have the right e-z out no problem...but what if you dont have one?  so a couple of nights ago i decided to replace a barrel on a 308 that has the apex rail.....well there are four allen heads that screw down to the barrel nut...i didnt use locktite and was careful not to over tighten,but two of the lil bastards wouldnt budge...heat ,vibration soaking in pb blaster didnt do squat.all of my e-z outs were not the right size...Hmmmm  thought back to what my engine builder did one time at the race track on a boogered allen head.
  get a torx bit...thats the ticket...so here ya go tap it in and bam out they come ...daamn they were in tight...i think by them touching the barrel nut ...heat and crud locked em up
Wash

 

 

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The torx bit will work, but it rips up the torx bit - and when you need that thing later, it's not-quite-right to do it's job.  Works great to rip out a stripped allen bolt, though.  What you really need are these little hookers, right here - they'll yank out stripped allens, stripped torx heads, stripped internal 12-point heads, etc.  They shred shiit...

 

P1040627.JPG

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The torx bit will work, but it rips up the torx bit - and when you need that thing later, it's not-quite-right to do it's job.  Works great to rip out a stripped allen bolt, though.  What you really need are these little hookers, right here - they'll yank out stripped allens, stripped torx heads, stripped internal 12-point heads, etc.  They shred shiit...

 

P1040627.JPG

And where, good sir, might one locate these little hookers?  Looks like another super tool I have never heard of.  Oughta have an ongoing thread about super tools other people know about that are unknown to me.  Never seen anything like these.

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Looks like a Harbor Freight version of Grabit bits.

Plane    awesome im heading over to them.....mine are to large

looks like 98's might be the irwin hanson brand?    these sets are 30 to 70 bucks...nah ill sacrifice a torx for a 1.99  in any size that I need....lol

Wash

                                                       

Edited by washguy
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Slugger    fleabay has em...so does harbor china freight.....ive been using e-z outs since the 70's...if you have never used these...then you have never fuked up. .. Ha.....most all of my use was in  plumbing/ hydraulic type situations ...where the e-z out is tapered and  catches an old fitting  on the inside wall....also left hand drill bits can back out an allenhead but I dont want a drill near my rifle.....     Wash

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_TopRatedSellers=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=screw+extractors&_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc

do not get a tapered end cause it wont allow you to grab a small allen head not enough depth on the screw..

Edited by washguy
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Slugger    fleabay has em...so does harbor china freight.....ive been using e-z outs since the 70's...if you have never used these...then you have never fuked up. .. Ha.....most all of my use was in  plumbing/ hydraulic type situations ...where the e-z out is tapered and  catches an old fitting  on the inside wall....also left hand drill bits can back out an allenhead but I dont want a drill near my rifle.....     Wash

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_TopRatedSellers=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=screw+extractors&_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc

do not get a tapered end cause it wont allow you to grab a small allen head not enough depth on the screw..

Thanks.  I've used E-Z outs, just never seen a set quite like these.  Problem is, when you need 'em, you need 'em.  And, trust me on this, I can positively guaranty that I have, in fact, fuked up.  Busted drills drilling stuff out, busted E-Z outs, etc.  Always looking to get an edge on the evil chink hardware.

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My set came off the Matco tool truck - don't buy cheap extractors...  if you do, you'll buy more cheap extractors to try to remove your broken cheap extractors that snapped off, and then again...  it never ends.  Don't fuk around with extractors.  Or do, and come back in here and tell me your story later...

This is the Matco SEXS10 set - sex in an S10...  Shepp can relate...  lmfao...

Search it online for the best price, if the tool truck doesn't provide you the added convenience of stopping by at work:

https://www.google.com/#q=matco+sexs10

 

P1040629.JPG

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In that pic, those are all 3/8" drive bits, brother.  They're hefty...

Sweet...ill go look for a set....most of mine have tapers and wont work with no depth allen heads....I did find a couple of square tips  on my bench,but they were too small to work..I cut back on one till the taper fit the allen head,but it only got one out...then went to torx...that bad boy did the job

thanks brother     Wash

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  • 1 month later...

An item that I find invaluable, is a tube of "Valve Lapping Compound". Apply a drop or 2, to the head of your bit and it takes the slack out of a loose fitting bit. You do not have to over do it. It works great on stripped screws (straight and Phillips) and hex bolt heads. There used to be a product called "Sticktion", I think, and after it was no longer available, I tried the valve lapping compound with the same success.

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  • 2 years later...

At a past job I was a "tool room technician". We had 18 CNC horizontal machining centers and I set all the tooling for them. Changed out dull tools, replaced inserts, measured the length and put a tag on the finished tool build. Ordered all the stuff we used and dealt with the tooling vendors we bought from and who sharpened diamond inserts. So when it came to changing diamond inserts, I did hundreds a day, and hundreds the next day. Most used allen screws, a few used torx.

Doing that you will quickly see the quality of a brand of allen wrench. A good Bondhaus or Eklind might last a week...the use kind of breaks the rules too because you wind it BOTH ways, stuff like car axles fail way more quickly if torsion is ever reversed. A CHEAP no name import may only last a day, and will start to wind up and do all kinds of weird stuff before it fails.

So...use good allen wrenches. For the 1/4 hex bits and all types of Torx wrenches and bits Wiha tool is hands down the best out there that I found. Some tool mfg seem to have their own standard for the Torx so I held onto the ones that came with tools, and would try a few different types if I had a stubborn one. For gun stuff I'd do the same with the tools the mfg of the base or whatever provide, MAYBE they have chosen one that works really well with their screws. Again between the WIHA and a poor quality in 1/4 hex bits , you will see the poor quality bit wind up when you try to use it...it is is winding up and unwinding each time you tighten or loosen, it is dead on it's feet :-).

 

When gun stuff moved away from allen and into Torx I was overjoyed really....some of the allen screw scope bases really sucked no matter what kind of wrench you used.

Brownells sells Torx scope base screws that are worth keeping on hand, I do not even mess with allen head scope base screws any more. There are two styles, one called "oval" has a sort of rounded socket the screw seats in, and the other is a conventional flat head screw socket.

 

Bill

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Back right after WWII you could buy surplus left-hand drill bits and also left-hand electric drills (no such thing those days as a reversable electric drill motor) , we used a lot of allen head screws on perforating bullet guns and they were hard to back out. We used the left-hand drill motors and bits to grip the heads, drill the screws out, then ran a tap to fix the threads in the bullet gun.

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On 12/13/2018 at 10:44 AM, mrmackc said:

Back right after WWII you could buy surplus left-hand drill bits and also left-hand electric drills (no such thing those days as a reversable electric drill motor) , we used a lot of allen head screws on perforating bullet guns and they were hard to back out. We used the left-hand drill motors and bits to grip the heads, drill the screws out, then ran a tap to fix the threads in the bullet gun.

Actually you can buy LH drills now in sets with spiral flute easy outs. LH drill quality is kind of spotty due to the fact that not a lot are made....to be fair I will say "with the ones I have used so far". With a normal drill you are trying to drill without having the drill catch, using a LH drill to get a bolt out IMHO you are TRYING to have it grab/catch and unscrew the bolt :-). The bigger an allen bolt gets the harder/tougher it seems to be, we have some 1" and 1-1/4" at work that we have to get out once broken, and they are REALLY tough to drill. Worst case you worry the point of a 1/2" cobalt drill in to full dia, then run in a center cutting endmill to make the hole flat, then use another half inch drill, then the endmill again, repeat until you are deep enough for a large easy out to grab. Half of the time your feet are 8' from the floor when your doing this, and the machine is 250F and working on slow baking you :-).

Bill

 

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11 hours ago, willbird said:

Actually you can buy LH drills now in sets with spiral flute easy outs. LH drill quality is kind of spotty due to the fact that not a lot are made....to be fair I will say "with the ones I have used so far". With a normal drill you are trying to drill without having the drill catch, using a LH drill to get a bolt out IMHO you are TRYING to have it grab/catch and unscrew the bolt :-). The bigger an allen bolt gets the harder/tougher it seems to be, we have some 1" and 1-1/4" at work that we have to get out once broken, and they are REALLY tough to drill. Worst case you worry the point of a 1/2" cobalt drill in to full dia, then run in a center cutting endmill to make the hole flat, then use another half inch drill, then the endmill again, repeat until you are deep enough for a large easy out to grab. Half of the time your feet are 8' from the floor when your doing this, and the machine is 250F and working on slow baking you :-).

Bill

 

Thanks for the reply. By the way you are preaching to the choir, 

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  • 5 months later...

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