Thread: This Tool Is Pure Magic. Build One.

Tweet

If you ever have to take rusty bolts and screws out, SAVE THIS THREAD.

We can't take credit for inventing it, someone else did that, and we are eternally grateful to him. My Son built ours in about 10 minutes at a cost of about 2 bucks, and it saved him days or weeks of slaving to get the rusty screws out of his newly acquired '29. I am only passing this on, as it is as close to a miracle as you will ever find.

Most old cars are held together with lots of screws, usually the flatbladed type, as phillips weren't invented yet. When you try to remove them, they are always frozen, and so you soak and heat and usually booger up the head and end up drilling the head out. When my Son stripped down his first '29, the Fordor, it took him weeks of this painful routine, getting door hinges, etc. removed. When He got this new '29, he remembered seeing a thread on one forum, and went back and found it. He built the tool in that thread, and you won't believe how easy it works. He was able to strip down the entire car in about 1 1/2 hour using this new tool.

I will post some pictures, but in essence what you do is take one of the tips that come with your air chisel, and modify it. He used the pointed one, and modified it by welding a 1/4 inch drive, 1/4 inch socket to the end of it. Then he went to Home Depot and bought a flat bladed screwdriver tip that is made to go in power tools. These have a hex shank that fits right into the 1/4 inch socket. Then he welded a handle onto the side of the pointed chisel to use as a lever to turn the screws out.

All you have to do is seat the screwdriver tip squarely into the screw, put some pressure on it to hold it in place, and squeeze the trigger on your air chisel, so that it starts a hammering action on the screw. After a couple of seconds, you can take the handle that is welded onto the shank, and turn it counter clock wise ( while still squeezing the trigger) and the screw will turn out as if by magic. The tip they sell at Home Depot is sort of wide, so he ground a relief in each side so it would slip down into the head of the Model A screws.

You aren't limited to just flatheaded screws, as you can add a Phillips tip, and various socket heads too.

There are no words to describe how well this simple tool works. If you fool around with old cars, you have got to try this thing. It worked on about 50 screws he had to remove, and each and every one came out just that easy.

Try it, you'll love it.

Don

Good post. I'm always in favour of getting hammered and screwed at the same time. (seriously, it looks like a great way to free up rusty screw, bolts, etcetera).

I have had one of these tools in my tool box for 25 years. Being an aircraft mechanic it has been one of those can't do without tools and yes it is effective.

Yeah, I had heard this tool kind of went hand in hand with aircraft mechanics. What is there on planes that makes it necessary to remove screws this way? Is it that they corrode, or does aluminum set up a dissimilar metal situation, or what?

Just curious.

Don

Well, floorboard screws under galleys and lavatories in transport airplanes can get corroded, there are exterior aluminum access panels, fairings and leading edges that are secured with steel screws that are subject to some pretty harsh environmental conditions, hence corrosion. Corrosion control is a big thing in the aircraft industry and as there are many different corrosion prevention techniques corrosion still perpetuates.