Thread: Tools of the Month Club

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Stevie inspired me with his comment about rusty bolt removal, so this may be more than just "a" tool, rather a group of tools for similar situations.

In the attached picture on the right is the age old favorite that almost all of us have: the cold chisel and a bfh. I've seen newer chisels that have a handle on them I guess intended to protect the hand from a misaimed hammer blow, but I still have the old fashioned kind.

At the bottom of the picture is a nut splitter. Basically a chisel point and a screw to tighten it through the nut. These come in handy when there isn't room to swing the hammer or line up the chisel. You need enough room to fit it over the nut and to be able to get a wrench over the screw portion so it too has limitations.

Upper center is a 'bolt out", useful for bolt heads that have been rounded off. These have a spiral tooth configuration inside that is intended to bite into the rounded head so that you can turn the bolt out.

The other day I had to take a Model A trans off it's bell housing. One of the bolts had a rounded head and none of the above bolt outs was large enough to fit over the head. So I dug out the Blair Rotabroach kit on the left side of the picture. These are more intended for making nice, round holes in sheet metal, but the cutting heads are very tough and sharp, and with the use of a good cutting oil will cut a bolt head fairly easily. Just drill down slow and straight. I chose the cutter size to match the bolt shank, center punched the head, and basically machined away the head around the shank, then got the stud wrench and backed out the remaining portion of the bolt.

If you haven't used these rotabroaches they're a real delight for clean holes in sheet stock. And the smaller ones work for drilling out spot welds as well.