[orenda635]

Originally Posted by voyager_663rd

cheap chinese steel is painted black to slow down the rusting process.

original gear on Ryan's was this stuff. they replaced it with good stuff after many complained about "springy" gear that bent on the first landing (good or bad).

Made in China doesn't neccessarily mean its good I guess. I remember the one of the landing gear bolts on my Vmar Tomahawk was stripped right out of the box. It was made out of that junk. I had to use a blow torch to heat it up so I could get it out. Are there better quality bolts out there that I can get so this doesn't happen again?

[chuck_zc]

Do you have a tight fitting Torx bit that you can tap into the head of the bolt. If you can get one slightly bigger that the bolt this should provide enough grip to get the bolt out.

[bavl]

Originally Posted by orenda635

I've gone and done something really dumb. I was doing the an end of year inspection and cleaning of the piston on my OS 46 FX. Somehow I managed to strip the heads of two of the bolts holding the cylinder cap. I can't get them off with my ball drivers now. What's a good tool to get these off so I can replace them?

The best practical way to remove stripped screws is drilling the heads out.
keep the engine in a straight line with a 5mm or 3/16 drill bit and make a hole in the center of screw’s head. The remaining of the head will fall apart as soon as the bit reach to the cylinder head.
Repeat this procedures for all of damaged screws. Remove the cylinder head and take out the broken screws by pliers.
It will work better with a drill press but you can use a hand drill as well.
I have tried this method several times with great result.

Babak

Made in China doesn't neccessarily mean its good I guess. I remember the one of the landing gear bolts on my Vmar Tomahawk was stripped right out of the box. It was made out of that junk. I had to use a blow torch to heat it up so I could get it out. Are there better quality bolts out there that I can get so this doesn't happen again?

If you are using screws made offshore they will invariably be junk. Most of the stuff sold in hardware or hobby stores are of this type. For quality screws go to an industrial supplier and insist on a particular brand. There are two quality brands. "Unbrako" and "Holokrome". Most of the companies I do work for have these brands written into their tooling standards.

As in all things, you get what you pay for.

Ed S

[Fodder]

[quote="orenda635"]

Originally Posted by ronm

Why can't they just use Robertson heads.

The states don't like robertson. Slot or Philips is basically what you'll find.

[ronm]

Are there better quality bolts out there that I can get so this doesn't happen again?

I usually spend the extra couple bucks and get the stainless or hardened bolts. It's really worth the little bit extra.
All the screws on my planes, self tapping, wood, and machine are changed out to robertson.
With stainless, you won't have a problem with stripping the allen type screws.

[Vulcan1]

I agree with the stainless and that is all I purchase for small screws if possible. Where the problem is that anything different from 3 or 4mm is special order. I used to convert most of my head bolts to 6/32 for the 3mm bolts. You can then purchase a variety of good allen bolts to use. If you do convert while at the bolt supply buy a set of taps. There should be 3 in the set and finish with the bottoming tap. The new ones will be sharp and cut a clean thread.
I still prefer drilling the bolt out with the left hand drill bit. If you drill at the slowest speed possible with a steady pressure lots of times before the head comes off the heat from drilling will back the screw out.
John

[Gary Maker]

I agree that where you may have snapped the head off a screw or bolt, drilling and retaping is the best method.

But if you've just stripped the hex out of the socket head of a cap screw, and I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, a set of "Easy Out" screw and bolt removers work wonderfully. They have biting ends on them twisted the opposite way to the bolt threads and bite into the cap when turning them counter-clockwise and out comes the damaged socket head cap screw!

I believe Canadian Tire advertised these a while back about a million times on TV! They are not really cheep but worth every penny in saved frustrations!

[Vulcan1]

Gary,
I have a few different type of the easy outs sets and havn't had to good a results on the small type. The big problem is to take your time what ever you try. It also does not hurt to warm the case up a bit to get it to expand. That is not a melt down but just warm enough for a glove.
John
ps: This is one reason I am making the EDM. It would make it so easy.

[cf-drg]

I thought TORX is what the US equivilent is to our robertson....
Also got a toy from Mc D's made in china and they used a triangular socket type head for all the screws..Ooooo
For shock value..... I had to purchase a head bolt ( just 1 ) for my 6.9 deisel... Its about 6" with a 3/8" thead and a 12 point socket head, ( a grade 12 bolt, no stretching or bending.. A real tough cookie bolt )
Well $12.00 later for 1 bolt I was thankful I wasn't replacing the whole set.....