It's every mechanic's worst nightmare. A job is moving right along. Good things are happening, and you're feeling like you might actually get this done quicker than expected. That's when you run into a stuck nut or bolt. Everything comes to a screeching halt because of this one crusty monster standing in your way. The four letter words start flying, and the dog goes to lay outside.
FINALLY, there is a modern solution to this age-old problem: Thread Slick! Just a little bit of heat, and a little bit of Thread Slick, has the rustiest problem nut or bolt freed up quicker than you ever thought possible! It's that easy. Problems that used to waste hours and days with soaking in other lubricants, takes only minutes with Thread Slick!
You won't believe you ever did without this stuff!
In the event that you run out of Thread Slick, and it's too late to go get more, here are some other tricks I used when I was struggling with stuck nuts and bolts on my old equipment:
- Heat. We got it red hot. Heat was the most obvious first thing to do, and if it was possible, we didn't just get it a little hot. We got it REALLY hot. This helps break the rust and corrosion holding the nut or bolt from moving.
- Cold water. We would alternate heating it to red hot, then dousing with cold water. The sudden temperature changes helped 'shock' and break the rust and corrosion.
- Hitting. In between the heating, we would hit the stuck object to help physically break the rust and corrosion. We hit with a mallet or brass hammer for more delicate situations, and if we could really smack it with a regular hammer, we were always sure to avoid damaging the threads or bolt ends.
- Welding. In the dire situation when a bolt head snapped, a trick we used was to weld straight onto the remaining piece of bolt, building it up until we had a new head to grab and spin with vice grips. Then we repeated the steps above, and prayed!
While these tricks did help us out of some nasty stuck situations, I would never recommend the frustration that comes along with them. It's exactly why I invented Thread Slick: so hardworking mechanics would never have to waste the time and frustration that we did.
You never know when you'll run into that next stuck day waster, so don't wait! Go get some Thread Slick for your shop, so you can always get it done quick!