unable to loosen bolts on planer head

[Zach England]

I am unable to loosen the allen bolts on my planer head. I have only been able to remove one and have hollowed out the heads of several and broken a few hex keys. I sprayed some penetrating oil but it has not helped. Is there any advice to be had, or do I need to throw this cheap ridgid planer out (which I am tempted to do for a number of reasons) and start over? I am extremely frustrated. Please advise.

Thanks, as always.

[george wilson]

The bolts on jointers also tend to get frozen. Maybe from moisture in the wood,a little corrosion from wood?

It isn't good you have rounded out some of the screws. I suggest putting the allen wrench into each stubborn one,and giving it a few sharp whacks with a small hammer. This helps break loose small corrosion. Next,grind the end of the allen wrench square to resharpen it. Get rid of any rounded corners on the wrench,and try again.

I ALSO RECOMMEND getting a GOOD set of Allen brand wrenches. Some cheap,or especially import wrenches are made of softer steel. Elkind are good. ALSO,if you get those stuck screws out,buy some UNBREAKO (sp?) or HOLOCHROME(sp?) screws. You'll have to buy a whole box,but it is a good investment. They are probably metric. Be sure you know what you are ordering. Take a screw you do get out to the local hardware store,and compare it till you get it identified. Don't buy them there,though. They will be the same junk. MSC,or McMaster Carr sells the top brands(they sell junk,too). Get the good brands I recommend.


AS A LAST RESORT,heat the screws that won't come out. Don't ruin your gibs. I guess the knives are worn,so they don't matter unless you want to turn them over. HSS can stand red heat,anyway. HSS is tempered at 1000º,so don't worry about it. After you heat the screws,let them cool,apply more penetrating oil. Do you have Liquid Wrench? It could be important to use it.

If they just will not come out after all that,you can buy a set of GOOD bolt extractors,but don't buy import junk. get a good($) set. Get the tapered square type. They are better than the twisted ones,buy cheap import sets may be too brittle,or too soft to bite. You may have to grind the end off the one that goes into the worn screws if it isn't tight enough. Drive it in,and try to turn the screw out.

DO leave a few days for the Liquid wrench to get in there regardless of heating,or whatever.

If I HAD to get the screws out, and all else failed,I'd buy a straight flute carbide drill that is the ROOT DIAMETER of the threads,and drill them out,and re tap the threads AFTER you have identified the thread. I used to do this several times a year for the gunsmith and blacksmith's shops.

It may be that you would have to take the cutter head out of the planer to get at it for drilling.

This may not help you much. I used to get lots of small broken off HSS taps in blind holes. I would put these in the vertical mill. I had a selection of small,solid carbide,titanium nitride coated(TIN) wend mills. I'd get the right sized one in the mill,run it about 2000 rpm,and mill out the broken taps like butter. I could mill them out so well that only the original threads would be left in the hole,but I had mills just the right diameter,and the eye to get the mill exactly centered in the hole. There isn't to much other means to get rid of HSS taps,unless you have an EDM machine(I didn't),which is the more common way to do it.

[John Bush]

I use an impact screwdriver. It produces a slight counterclockwise rotation when you strike it with a hammer. My jointer has "torx?" head screws and I use the bit that came with the machine. It does the job for me. True confessions: Harbor Freight---under $10. Good luck.

[Will Overton]

It's a good practice when trying to loosen bolts and finding them stuck, to try tightening them first. This will often free whatever is causing them to stick.

[Gary Muto]

I just went through the same ordeal. I tried penetrating oil and used a 12V impact driver and still had 4 that would not come loose. I tried tightening and then loosening and that didn't work. Then I got out my old 3/8" drive pneumatic impact driver. It spun the bolts right out. I suggest getting/borrowing one of those for the time it will save you. Once I got the bolts out I cleaned them (no rust at all) and applied anti-sieze compound before installing.

[Luther Oswalt]

I have been very pleased with "BP Blaster" when trying to remove a stubborn bolt like the ones you are having trouble with. You can get a spray can or a gallon can at a hardware store or farm store! It is amazing stuff. I like it much better than any other pentrating oil and I have used many different pentrating oils over the years!Follow the directions on the container and you may have them out soon! Good Luck!
Leo

[Zach England]

I have been very pleased with "BP Blaster" when trying to remove a stubborn bolt like the ones you are having trouble with. You can get a spray can or a gallon can at a hardware store or farm store! It is amazing stuff. I like it much better than any other pentrating oil and I have used many different pentrating oils over the years!Follow the directions on the container and you may have them out soon! Good Luck!
Leo

This is precisely what I am using. I gave the head a liberal coat of it last night. Hopefully there will be progress today.

Thanks for the advice.

That jointer/planer combo machine is suddenly looking more and more affordable...

[Matt Day]

An impact driver would be great, but I think Zach's problem now is that he's got some stripped allen bolts. Once you round them out I think there are 2 options. 1, drill out the head as the previous poster mentioned. 2, using a rotary tool with a cutting disc, cut a slot for a flat screwdriver.

Over the years as a bicycle mechanic this happens quite a bit and the 2 options above work.

Oh, and I also suggest making sure you have good allen wrenches. My favorites are Bondus with the rounded head on the long end (good for angles and removing once they're loosened, but they're more likely to strip with the rounded end).

[Zach England]

Can you suggest somewhere to get good allen wrenches? Mine are "Kobalt" (lowes house brand), and truth be told were perfectly adequate until last night. They definitely lasted a lot longer (that is they stripped more bolts) than the grossly useless "wrench" that came with the planer.

What I'd like to know is why I stripped 5-6 of these things. In retrospect it seems I should have taken a different approach after stripping one.

I like the slot cutting with the angle grinder. If nothing else it will hasten the destruction of the entire cutter head and force me to move on from this quixotic nonsense.

An impact driver would be great, but I think Zach's problem now is that he's got some stripped allen bolts. Once you round them out I think there are 2 options. 1, drill out the head as the previous poster mentioned. 2, using a rotary tool with a cutting disc, cut a slot for a flat screwdriver.

Over the years as a bicycle mechanic this happens quite a bit and the 2 options above work.

Oh, and I also suggest making sure you have good allen wrenches. My favorites are Bondus with the rounded head on the long end (good for angles and removing once they're loosened, but they're more likely to strip with the rounded end).

[george wilson]

Zach,re-read my post#1 above. I told you where to get them. Good luck. Others made good tips,too,but take advantage of my tips,too.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

1. Using punch, tap on the punchd and deliver physical shock to the allen hole in the screw.

2. Then using an "easy out", tap it into the screw and try backing it out.

[Zach England]

Thanks, everyone.

If you can't tell, I don't work on cars and have never really been exposed to mechanical work. When others were taking high school shop I was taking art history.

[Jason Roehl]

Popular Mechanics did a test of several penetrating-type lubricants, and the one that came up best by quite a bit was a homebrew of 1/2 acetone and 1/2 automatic transmission fluid.

[Mark Patoka]

I had that happen with my Ryobi planer. I ended up drilling into the bolt, using a smaller-than-the-hole diameter bit and then used those square tapered extractors and was able to remove what was left of the bolt. I was fortunate and didn't ruin the threads in the hole so I replaced those screws with some hex-head bolts. If you use hex-head, make sure they don't protrude too far above the knife to cause clearance issues.

[keith micinski]

Penetrating oil is a scam. None of them do anything. If the bolt is stuck in there because of rust they aren't going to dissolve rust I don't care what they say. Stick a rusty bolt in a cup for a few days and at the en you still have a rusty bolt. If the bolt has been over tightened the penetrating oil isn't all of the sudden going to apply torque to the bolt and loosen it. Two things take bolts out. Heat and more Torque.