opening a hex nut with allen key

vanderbadger

lads trying to open a little hex nut if thats the right term, I have an allen key that fits but its in a tight spot and the key is starting to slip, I got 1 little turn off it but now it wont budge, its the little knife blade on my wrapper, its has a blade abit like a stanley knife blade that cuts the wrap when you are tipping off bale, anyway blade is broke and I need to take off the 2 little nuts to get new one in, got one nut off, was thinking of trying to wedge in bigger key or else try to weld key to nut in order to get it off, welding would be tricky though..
any other ideas on how to get the fecker out, its pretty small so it would be v hard to chisel it, it say its the first time ever its been changed so seems very tight

bob charles

any idea on what size the key is in mm? you could weld a bolt onto it as the heat usually does the job of getting it moving. Can you not drill it?

caseih

is there any room to get a pointy nose pliers at it to give the allen key a help,,,,, or either drill it out it....

vanderbadger

bob charles wrote: »

any idea on what size the key is in mm? you could weld a bolt onto it as the heat usually does the job of getting it moving. Can you not drill it?

well its actually a little bolt i suppose with a hex head that the key fits into, so it just treads into the piece its fits onto so if i drill it out i will wreck the tread, sorry im not great at describing it, a bit of heat might do the trick though, the little bolt itself is not much bigger than a gutter bolt so you can imagine the head is pretty small, its also difficult to get at the fecker

vanderbadger

caseih wrote: »

is there any room to get a pointy nose pliers at it to give the allen key a help,,,,, or either drill it out it....

well its behind a spring loaded little bar at the cutting mechanism of the wrapper, you can pull the bar back so much but you still dont have much access to it,I was thinking of maybe whacking a flat head screw driver into it, slightly wider than the actual hex key and then trying to turn screw driver with grip wrench or something like that

listermint

Aldi / Lidl do T Bar hex and allen key sets. They are invaluable. very worthwhile for this type of job.

CJhaughey

Stick a bit of valve grinding paste on the end of the allen key and try again.
If it turns and strips the head get a set of Torx 1/4" drive and beat one into the head of the allen bolt.

pakalasa

Is it a 'Grub Screw'?

See attached link;
http://www.ministeam.com/acatalog/bohmHB008-200.JPG

Tora Bora

pakalasa wrote: »

Is it a 'Grub Screw'?

See attached link;
http://www.ministeam.com/acatalog/bohmHB008-200.JPG

No, it's probably a "socket head cap screw" like this

vanderbadger

got the little b4stard out this evening, not pretty im afraid, will have to try and pick one up

Dupont

pleanty of coppper ease when they go back in

pakalasa

That's a countersink bolt. The length is specified by the entire length, head included, unlike the socket head bolt, which is specified by the thread length only. Any decent hardware store would have them. If not try Hassets in Limerick or TED in Dublin.
Where I work, we've used both these to get oddball sizes.

http://www.hassetts.ie/Index.html
http://www.ted.ie/

vanderbadger

pakalasa wrote: »

That's a countersink bolt. The length is specified by the entire length, head included, unlike the socket head bolt, which is specified by the thread length only. Any decent hardware store would have them. If not try Hassets in Limerick or TED in Dublin.
Where I work, we've used both these to get oddball sizes.

http://www.hassetts.ie/Index.html
http://www.ted.ie/

cool
thanks

quietsailor

This mightn't be any use to you Vanderbadger but it might help someone else;

AR Brownlows, in at the end of the link road to Cork city stock and incredible range of thread sizes, Metric, US, Imperial, Japanese (hydraulic fittings).

I helped on the renovation of an old ship that was launched back in the 30's so it had every thread size under the sun and Brownlows were able to supply or find what we needed.

M three

vanderbadger wrote: »

got the little b4stard out this evening, not pretty im afraid, will have to try and pick one up

Jesus Op you butchered that! A few bangs of a hammer always helps before you try it with the allen key

vanderbadger

M three wrote: »

Jesus Op you butchered that! A few bangs of a hammer always helps before you try it with the allen key

yep
in my defense you cant hit it directly with a hammer because its behind a bar, it was pretty soft though so for a finish I was afraid i would shear the head off alltogether before moving it, anyway new piece arrived from mchales today and it included new 2 counter screw thingys so should be good for another long time hopefully

CJhaughey

You got it off fine anyway, thats the main thing.
Put some coppergrease on the threads before you stick it back together and you shouldn't have that problem again.
You can also use a very sharp small cold chisel on the outside part of the head and it should turn as long as the chisel bites.

pakalasa

+1 on the Copper Grease.
I've seen it used on industrial equipment that may be decades before it has to be opened again. The copper particles will remain long after the grease has dried up. The copper will then prevent the steel bonding to steel.

vanderbadger

pakalasa wrote: »

+1 on the Copper Grease.
I've seen it used on industrial equipment that may be decades before it has to be opened again. The copper particles will remain long after the grease has dried up. The copper will then prevent the steel bonding to steel.

new ver