Bad Allan key

[mbond]

Today I got a new parting tool with an HSS blade. The blade is held in pace with 3 set screws and that's all fine. The set screws are 1/8th Allan and it came with a key. Two of the three screws were fine, but the third was frozen. Using only my fingers, I managed to move the screw just enough to release the blade, but I put about 170 degree twist and a bend in the key. The long end is only 2 inches long, so there is no way that I should be able to break it with just my fingers right? This must be a bad part right?

 

[terry_g]

I hope they did a better job tempering the steel in the rest of the parting tool

 

[DPittman]

Made of licorice.

 

[Susquatch]

The long end is only 2 inches long, so there is no way that I should be able to break it with just my fingers right? This must be a bad part right?

Even an old man like me can easily bend (or break) a 1/8 Allen key. But usually, the grub screw socket strips.

Once you get it out, better chase those threads.

FWIW, those grub screws don't need to be torqued to their yield strength to hold a blade in place.

 

[PeterT]

Can you show a picture of your toolholder.

 

[StevSmar]

This must be a bad part right?

I remember how I used to be able to bend 1/2” Allen keys like that. With two fingers, and then my Mum would wake me up from my dream…

Now I can only do 1/8th… but I dream of progressing to 3/16” one day…

 

[trevj]

Low rent, disposable tools as an 'included value'.

Chuck it and get on with your life, or zip off the blunted end and get what use you can out of it.

Personally, I really like the Bohndus Gorrilla Proof keys, as when they reach their limit, they just break. They have a shorter shank for just that reason!

And, I have done all manner of evil, driving either Metric, or Torx drivers, in to stripped out hex head bolts, in order to remove them!

Ugly, yes, but I saw it through!

 

[Susquatch]

Boy, lots of new stuff for me in that post Trev!

I have done all manner of evil, driving either Metric, or Torx drivers, in to stripped out hex head bolts, in order to remove them!

Tell us more about this evil procedure of yours. Never done anything like that. Sounds like a behaviour an ugly old man like me should know how to emulate. (Insert evil grin here).

I really like the Bohndus Gorrilla Proof keys, as when they reach their limit, they just break.

I didn't know anyone sold such a thing. Are they torque limiting or a reduced section or.....

 

[Rauce]

Tell us more about this evil procedure of yours. Never done anything like that. Sounds like a behaviour an ugly old man like me should know how to emulate. (Insert evil grin here).

I’ve done many times, find a bit that’s just a little bigger than the hex socket was before it got stripped and pound it in with a hammer. Success rate isn’t 100% but I’ve had better luck doing that than using screw extractors. Use an Allen socket or torx socket or if you don’t have one in the right size cut a piece off an Allen key and turn it with a wrench after you hammer it in.

 

[Former Member]

Good quality allen keys even as small as an 1/8 should just shy of indestructable, generally well beyond to most the screws that they are used in.

Cheaper ones, break, round, bend and so on.

 

[trevj]

I’ve done many times, find a bit that’s just a little bigger than the hex socket was before it got stripped and pound it in with a hammer. Success rate isn’t 100% but I’ve had better luck doing that than using screw extractors. Use an Allen socket or torx socket or if you don’t have one in the right size cut a piece off an Allen key and turn it with a wrench after you hammer it in.

Yep, that's the one! For more desperate situations, there is always a bigger hammer!

I used to remove stripped screws on aircraft panels. Guys would cam the driver tip out ofthe screw head, gorilla-tightening the damned things with a work driver tip or screwdriver. These were mainly Philips head screws. If you place the nice new driver tip in the cross slot, and tap it in to place, it usually displaces the warped material to a better, more secure fit on the driver tip. Once tapped into place, do not remove the tip, slide whatever motive power (socket/speeder/wrench) on to the tip, and apply torque smoothly. You can save yourself resorting to drilling and Eze-out abuse this way.

 

[Rauce]

Like my instructor in trade school said… “never modify or use a tool in a way other than it is intended to be used, unless that’s what it takes to get the job done, but you didn’t hear that from me”

 

[trevj]

Like my instructor in trade school said… “never modify or use a tool in a way other than it is intended to be used, unless that’s what it takes to get the job done, but you didn’t hear that from me”

I was in the Canadian Air Force. STRICT tool control, nobody goes home, unless ALL the tools on ALL the tool boards are accounted for. NO personal tools on the Aircraft! The Tool Crib Section, would do inspections, and purge out any of the modified tools. Lectures always followed. So did Modifying the tools they replaced with new, so they would work to do what they were needed for. Constant stupid cycle...
Usually it was pretty basic mods, like thinning a 3/8 box end wrench so it would fit over a nut in tight quarters, though sometimes it was a trip to the Metal shop for a quick cut and re-weld job, to make an offset wrench that would work.

Didn't go over very well, the day I said we could save all this hassle, all the recriminations, Lectures, etc., if Tool Control found it in them to just leave the modified tools alone and annotate them as such in Inventory... Nope! No room for Common Bloody Sense, OR Logic, there!