Thread: Stanley #4 - handle and tote threaded bolts seized to brass nuts

CA glue on the nut, let it dry, then turn both out if they will come out and separate the nut and bolt with moderate heat using a heat gun.

Though I may not be reading your post correctly and can't tell for sure if you mean the post stays in the plane casting or the brass bosses are seized to the threaded rod and they come out. Assuming the former.

Are you saying that the nut and stud are “trapped” in the wooden parts? If so that is not uncommon at all. Rather than trying to drift them out just keep spinning the nut using an electric screwdriver or drill (set on slow) and apply pressure on the other end of the stud. Once they’ve come out clamp the stud in a vise with padding to protect the threads and undo the nut. When you reassemble the plane use a drop of Loctite to lock the stud to the base.

Like the others, I'm not clear exactly what the problem is. If the stud is unscrewing from the body, but not wanting to pull out of the tote (a not uncommon occurrence, as noted), then try Chief's suggestion of spinning it with a battery drill, but I'd just use a bit of brass or aluminium rod to tap it out. That won't hurt the end of the threads unless you go wild with the hammer. They usually let go & come freely after a few mm of tapping. As DW says, a bit of heat applied to the brass nut once it's out of the wood does wonders for loosening frozen threads. In my youth we called an oxy-torch the "hot spanner" for good reason!

If you want to fix the stud in the body when reassembling (not something I bother doing, myself), make sure you thoroughly clean any grease or oil off the stud & out of the screw hole or Loctite will do very little for you...

Cheers,

To clarify the problem - the stud is unscrewing from the body, but not wanting to pull out of the tote and the knob.

I'll try the drill trick this morning and report back.

Originally Posted by IanW

Like the others, I'm not clear exactly what the problem is. If the stud is unscrewing from the body, but not wanting to pull out of the tote (a not uncommon occurrence, as noted), then try Chief's suggestion of spinning it with a battery drill, but I'd just use a bit of brass or aluminium rod to tap it out. That won't hurt the end of the threads unless you go wild with the hammer. They usually let go & come freely after a few mm of tapping. As DW says, a bit of heat applied to the brass nut once it's out of the wood does wonders for loosening frozen threads. In my youth we called an oxy-torch the "hot spanner" for good reason!

If you want to fix the stud in the body when reassembling (not something I bother doing, myself), make sure you thoroughly clean any grease or oil off the stud & out of the screw hole or Loctite will do very little for you...

Cheers,

Like Ian said, if I’m understanding the problem your brass nut an the stud are stuck in the wood work, just lightly tap them out with a Small punch, s… old screw driver, big nail.

Then a little bit of heat on the brass, some vice grips on the non thread part of the stud, should see them come loose.

Cheers Matt.

All fixed now - it needed a bigger tap to free it up. The studs and nuts were well seized, and the corrosion was effectively gluing it all together inside the timber pieces.

Thanks all for the advice

Originally Posted by blisterfingers

All fixed now - it needed a bigger tap to free it up. The studs and nuts were well seized, and the corrosion was effectively gluing it all together inside the timber pieces.

Thanks all for the advice

I guess that leaves a subsequent question - how much of the rod is consumed. A friend gave me one of his dad's planes (not such a sentimental guy!) and I took it apart to replace wood that was beat up. the rear handle rod was corroded so badly that it was about half of its original diameter in the center. It needed a good punch to get it to release - the inside of the hole where it was housed was pretty much a rust cake.

I was about to ask the same question. I have also seen a couple of studs that had corroded to half their diameter or less. Don't understand why that happens, I can only conclude that some of the wood they used was more acidic than usual. If you are concerned about a repeat performance, it might help if you stop one end of the hole through the handle with putty & fill it with some BLO & let it soak in for a few days before reassembly - that should at least slow down further corrosion.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I was about to ask the same question. I have also seen a couple of studs that had corroded to half their diameter or less. Don't understand why that happens, I can only conclude that some of the wood they used was more acidic than usual. If you are concerned about a repeat performance, it might help if you stop one end of the hole through the handle with putty & fill it with some BLO & let it soak in for a few days before reassembly - that should at least slow down further corrosion.

Cheers,

Start down the rabbit hole
Corrosion of metals associated with wood - Victoria and Albert Museum

Next you'll be thinking about doing Oddy tests
Oddy test - Wikipedia

Ta Michael - I've bookmarked the first article to read at my leisure....

Originally Posted by IanW

I was about to ask the same question. I have also seen a couple of studs that had corroded to half their diameter or less. Don't understand why that happens, I can only conclude that some of the wood they used was more acidic than usual. If you are concerned about a repeat performance, it might help if you stop one end of the hole through the handle with putty & fill it with some BLO & let it soak in for a few days before reassembly - that should at least slow down further corrosion.

Cheers,

beech handle on the plane that I had. it was a site plane, but for a joiner, so it shouldn't have been outside that much. Either way, if the finish is stripped off of beech, moisture will go through the straws to the rod probably in minutes, not even an hour. If it's finished and water goes down into the hole, it'll probably hold it in and the beech will soak up the moisture quickly.

I haven't seen it on a rosewood handle hole, but having seen it only once that bad, not exactly a strong confidence in the cause!

Here are the studs and nuts after a 2-day soak in evaporust.

IMG_1189.jpg

The steel studs look pretty good except for up around the steel/brass join, which looks a bit like galvanic corrosion.
I'll give it another soak in the evaporust for a few more days and see if that helps before hitting it with heat.

Failing that I may just search for replacement parts online.

Thank you Michael for the link to the V&A museum - an interesting read.

They look excellent. Almost zero chance I could show you my half eaten handle rod for comparison, but I'd consider those two golden.

The parts we can see certainly look to be in very good condition, so there is hope what's inside the brass nuts will be ok once you persuade them to let go.

If your problem is due to galvanic action (which would require a goodly amount of moisture over a longish period), the brass should still be fine, it's the iron-containing electrode that suffers most. If the steel is badly corroded inside the nuts, your main problem will be getting the nuts off without shearing the studs inside them, that could really complicate your day if you don't have screw extractors. If you can get the nuts off, there's a very good chance they will be perfectly ok & re-usable. If you need to replace the studs, that will be no problem either, I can make you some studs very easily, I have a whole packet of nails of just the right diameter that I keep for such occasions......

Cheers.