Thread: Nut Splitter or Angle Grinder

Hello everyone.

I hope these photos & information help on this nut splitter topic.
I chose a rusty bolt & nut for my photos so any damage to the threads & nut would show up shiny. My other hobby is photography.
New food for thought in this post... preferably use a 6 point socket/flex handle or ratchet even a good wrench with the nut splitter rather than using an impact wrench on the nut splitter.
I dont know what size fastener your dealing with...I have used & bench tested at home a new imported 2 pc nut splitter set I bought for $8.99 on a bolt mounted in a vice with success. I found that an open end wrench placed on the nutsplitter body helps prevent nutsplitter movement & twisting when tightening & using it. Get a good one with flat spots on its body preferably. If I recall correctly one nut made a cool CRACKING noise others did not this is due to hardness differences in my test nuts when it failed & split wide open before the built in chisel reached the threads. other nuts were softer & required using the nut splitter twice if needed I finished prying it open with a mini pry bar or junk screwdriver. I was very impressed with the ease of use after trying it a few times it was actually fun & required little strength or experience or expensive fire. LOL If needed or preferred when you see the nutsplitter chisel nearing the bolt threads then stop cranking the splitter. If you can only split only one side of the nut carefully & accurately strike different parts of the nut freehand with a metal cold chisel to stress the nut more & finish cracking & prying it off/ loose. I agree... if youre using an air chisel or metal cold chisel alone freehand for nut splitting it will probably be more stressful on the bolt depending on diameter, length size ect. possibly bending a soft metal bolt or breaking/snapping a harder bolt compared to a nutsplitter. Bolt size & bolts quality metal temper vary & added to this age & rusty metal dust filling the threads grooves/pitch, influencing what you can do with your fastener in terms of applying torque to remove it normally without the old bolt twisting, bending or snapping off if using a wrench ect. Some fastener Mfg websites provide torque charts for fasteners online. Of course these are reccomendations for new fasteners. If you dont have shaky hands an angle or dremel might do the trick as a last resort to weaken a couple spots on the nut. You can grind a small shallow groove on the nut place a chisel in the groove & whack it loose if youre missing corners on the nut. I agree...I personally would not cut/grind comepletely through the nut unless I didnt care about bolt damage.
Some tap/die cutting oil with a stiff wire brush & goggles might help if you have some already, having cleaner threads should help theoretically reduce the torque needed for nut removal.
I personally would first experiment practice dremeling / grinding on some junk frozen nuts/bolts fist if youre not sure which method to use.
I hope this helps.