Thread: Temporary Substitute Loctite

Nail polish. Pick a nice colour.

I believe loctite is sugar based, so experiment with liquids that desolve sugar and evaporate fast.

Would Nyloc nuts work, or is this for bolts screwing into castings etc.? Possibly even double nutting with normal nuts for economy.

The blue coloured loctite is the 'weak' one. It should break free using normal tooling - it's the red one that can need the gas axe when used on larger fastenings.

Nail polish makes a reasonable temporary antivibration substitute.

Thanks, guys, in this instance I have to thread a component into a blind hole so can't trap with nut(s). Interestingly, my wife would not spare any of her nail polish so I used the Loctite (it was blue not red) which does come apart and after applying it last night I tested it this morning and it came apart easily without any real force. The Loctite I have is a few years old, maybe it's gone off?

Originally Posted by rrobor

I believe loctite is sugar based, so experiment with liquids that desolve sugar and evaporate fast.

As you know, sugar is highly soluble in water especially hot water. It is not very soluble in other solvents like metho which would evaporate quickly. However, acetone mixes with water so I would try a strong sugar solution first & then dilute it with acetone to see what happens. Otherwise, nail polish sound like the easiest thing to use. Can't you "borrow" some when she goes out?

It's an interesting thread because I found myself needing loctite the other day & wondering what I could use as a substitute. Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by Glider

Otherwise, nail polish sound like the easiest thing to use. Can't you "borrow" some when she goes out?

Do not forget to put it back other wise you will be in trouble in more ways then one.

A quick dab of nail polish works very well. I used to work with precision optical assemblies in a previous life, some of which had many fine adjusting threads to set them up.

A small dab of nail polish was the preferred method of locking a thread when adjustment was complete. Plus (unless they have exactly the same colour nail polish ) you can tell straight away if some bugger has been tinkering......

Nail polish seal broken = voided warranty

As an aside, an even funnier one is to use washers on the 4 screws in the bottom of a product which hold the case on (inside which punters are not supposed to go), but put 2 washers on two of the screws and none on the others. People just assume that if they have 4 screws and 4 washers on the bench, then obviously every screw had a washer on it. Amazing how many people returned the product for repair swearing blind that they hadn't tinkered with it......but we knew different

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

A quick dab of nail polish works very well. I used to work with precision optical assemblies in a previous life, some of which had many fine adjusting threads to set them up.

A small dab of nail polish was the preferred method of locking a thread when adjustment was complete. Plus (unless they have exactly the same colour nail polish ) you can tell straight away if some bugger has been tinkering......

Nail polish seal broken = voided warranty

As an aside, an even funnier one is to use washers on the 4 screws in the bottom of a product which hold the case on (inside which punters are not supposed to go), but put 2 washers on two of the screws and none on the others. People just assume that if they have 4 screws and 4 washers on the bench, then obviously every screw had a washer on it. Amazing how many people returned the product for repair swearing blind that they hadn't tinkered with it......but we knew different

Cool. They dare not repeat your original "mistake."
This one gets added to my WWF index file.

Cheers,
Joe

A bit late but here goes, super glue will work as will ordinary enamel paint.

What did they use before LocTite? - Linseed oil. Goes gooey then sets after a while, usually not strong enough to wreck the screw.