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We used to call 'em easy outs. What have you guys found to be the best bang for your buck out there on the market? At my Dad's shop we used to use stuff made by Cleveland Twist...don't know if they are still in business or not. Lookin' for what you bought that worked and didn't as well.

Hank

Your talking bout those things that FU rusted bolts easily? I call them easy FU's... Never had one that didn't fail to break off so I mig them out now when kroil fails to loosen them.

Most easy outs are a bigger problem just waiting to happen.
Keep that in mind and use them gingerly, and stop if its not working.
Hanson makes the best set I know of, I have one and it works great on broken off brass fittings or pipe and similar things. If its a bolt that rusted and broke off an easy out rarely works.

Grigg

I like to use left hand drill

...example...

drill in steps, it usually backs out.

I usually left hand drill 'em until I can just tap the hole.

Good timing for the question, just went through this today. Had two 6 x 1.00 mm screw heads bust off. They where in aluminum head on an air cooled VW. I went the usual route for me. Center punched the screws close to center, and drilled. I then grabbed a couple of easy outs. I've only had easy outs work maybe 1 in 10 times. This time I thought I put a little heat on them with a MAPP gas torch to see the effect. The effect was to my chagrin it softened the easy out metal. Anyway the usual end results was drill and tap. I've had thoughts there is a design flaw in easy outs. Your trying to remove a thread that is already to tight to unscrew, rust corrosion, galled threads, whatever. So you drill a hole for the easy out, and then tap a tapered rod into the hole. Isn't a the reverse threads and taper going to force its way further in the hole putting more pressure outwards on the threads. The easy outs that are square, tapered, and have the cutting edge seem to be designed to get around wedging. Unfortunately I've found that for the edges to grab you have to force them harder into the hole, same results wedging. That and since the easy outs are tapered you are putting most of the pressure at or near the entry to the hole. There must be a trick to getting these things to work.

I haven't used a left hand drill yet. I did pick up some cheap "easy outs" that were left handed drill tips. They looked like they were designed to dig in as it was turned, did work. A left handed drill would work better at least it would create some heat as it drilled through.

Larry

have you ever tried to build up bolt with arc welder i have had great results with this, heat of welding say 3/8 nut to broken stud and they unscrew out easy only need a couple of spots of weld

Well, I get to practice whatever method soon. The motor on my Suburban is a 1986 Corvette TPI. Yeah, they packed things in pretty tight. Anyway, I'm disassembling the tubes and plenum so I can make EGR blockoff plates and do some general cleanup. Aluminum intake manifold, aluminum tubes and plenum. Steel bolts driven with a Torx bit. I've already snapped the head of a regular bolt on the thermostat housing. That bolt was pretty fused in there. No problem, plenty of room to drill and tap.

I removed the passenger tubes and the plenum. I went to remove the drivers tubes. Wouldn't you know it. All the bolts came out except for the drivers outer rear bolt. The Torx stripped in that one. Pretty tight fit.I mean, even the bolt that you have to detach from inside with the long bit ACROSS the intake manifold came out! Oh well, I should have enough room to drill the head off the bolt to remove the tubes.

After that, I should have enough shank to use Vice Grips to remove the rest of the bolt. If that doesn't work, I'll need to decide to either drill and tap the holes in the manifold where it sits, or remove the manifold to do the work on a bench. Since I have most of the intake disassembled and I like the idea of putting the intake in the soup and peeking in to the lifter valley to see how well the previous owner took care of the motor, I'm leaning towards removing the whole thing. But it will start with removing the tubes so I can get to the center intake manifold bolts!

Sounds like a perfect application to weld onto whatever is left and turn it out with some vice grips. I've removed hundreds of broken bolts with that method, TIG is my preferred method but MIG or stick works too. The concentrated heat is why it works so well.

I might once I get the tubes off. That would still require removing the whole manifold as my welders are a small drive to my place of employment.

http://www.bunchobikes.com/TPI.jpg

Down there, deep between those two intake tubes, that's where that little bugger lives. Once I drill the head off, I'll have anough shank for a vise grip, nut, which I can weld to the shank, or what ever method I choose.

Cleveland has been bought by Greenfield, but they are still a top name in bits. But like everyone else, I have had very little luck with any kind of screw extractor. If the bolt breaks, it means the threads are either rusted or galled. And what makes anyone believe that the screw extractor that is harder than bits won't break off too. About the only success I have with screw extractors is when someone over-tightens a soft bolt in a blind hole. Welding does wonders for breaking rust. I try to plug weld a nut on anything I break off. In fact, I quite often weld a nut the next size bigger to a stud before it breaks off.

Thanks for the info. on Cleveland Crenwelge, I can handle the rusty stuff or bolts fine, I was looking at stripped screws like Phillips head product that my Pozidriv won't even grip. I wanted a quicker way to extract them than using vice grips. Got a little project I am going to start in a couple of weeks and I am sure to round off one or two with my drill and phillips bit. I want to be prepared and not play around with vice grips twisting the stripped screw out.

Btw...malox works like anti-seize on aluminum to keep them from galling if you have no anti-seize handy.
Hank

I use Wera Premium plus with diamond embedded in the tip and never have had problems removing Phillips. Of course if they have already been stripped out before. If thats the case, I have to resort to plan "B"

I used to pick the Wera tools up in Germany, but I think they can be ordered in the US online now.

http://www-us.wera.de/diamantbeschichtete_bits0.html?&L=1&tx_codetopx_pi1[tooltip]=1&cHash=1df5645a085b878c618224b0dd5df871

I like those diamond embedded tips....Thanks Crenwelge for the tip & link. I want to try and avoid the plan "B" if at all possible. It usually results in collateral damage and harsh words.:)