Puzzlenut adventures

Great report, Don. It should be required reading in wannabee machinist courses.

Another great pictorial, Don. But I just gotta ask, since I know you to be a welding artiste, did you for a moment consider mig welding hex nuts to the tops of those anti-theft nuts?

Jeff

I did. I didn't want to risk penetrating thru and welding the puzzlenut to the stud. Not likely, but very bad if it happens. A wimpy weld wouldn't do because those nuts are on there pretty tight.

I like the way you said it in your web site

"fear of penetrating thru the puzzlenut and welding it to the stud -- that would be a major eau chitte."

Karl

Karl,

Voice of experience?

Bob Swinney "Karl Townsend" wrote in message news:Lyw1g.4326$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Well I breezed right by that line...

Arggh, I guess it's time to fall on my sword.

Speaking of taking things for granted, SWMBO and I work together these days and usually commute in one car if we both don't have jaunts away from the office that day.

Yesterday afternoon I fulfilled a long standing promise to myself that someday, before I met my maker, I'd get a set of ham radio operator license plates for my car. I picked them up at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, screwed them on and stood back to admire the "W1/BSV" on my buggy. (The "/" is a little jagged lightening bolt symbol they put on ham radio operator plates here in Taxachusetts.)

I pointed the new plates out to wifey when we got in the car to go home yesterday. As expected, she was duly unimpressed.

Around noon today she asked me where in the parking lot I'd left the car and rushed out of the office running late (what's new) for a dentist appointment. She came pounding back in a couple of minutes later asking me again where the car was. You can guess the rest... She was back ten minutes after that in a real lather saying that my car must have been stolen.

I walked her out to the parking lot and pointed to my car, within sight of the office door. She'd forgotten about the license plate change and must have run past the back end of my car five or six times looking for a newish looking "silver car" with the old plate numbers on it. :-)

Jeff

Great narrative Don. What ingenuity. I am duly impressed, having chiseled and ground off more than my fair share of bastard nuts over the last 20 years.

A fella I knew did one better. Couldn't get the bolt off the trailer hitch so he took the torch out. The car fire (4 year old Cadillac) almost burnt the house down.

Karl

Good job and all that, but professional auto parts houses sell a socket just for such an occasion- it has a taper fit and works a treat.

Of course, that does take all the fun out of it...

-Carl

Nice job. Now drop those things into the trash so it won't happen again. Almost had to do the same thing myself until I remembered exactly where I'd tucked the socket last time I had to change a wheel on my Subaru.

PDW

I thought there must be an available solution, but I was unable to find it after an hour of websurfing and phonecalls, so I cut to the chase. Perhaps I should have asked here first, oh well,,,

I figure it took me about 2 hours spread over 3 days to get the bloody nuts off. Cost zero because I had everything needed for my approach at hand. Old puzzlenuts are now off, good spare now mounted as LH road wheel, trailer parked in boat tent, leaker ready to go to be fixed tomorrow and thence to spare position, I'll be gone fishin' before the lilacs bloom and fishin' starts getting good in these parts. Wonder why neither Tires Plus nor John's Auto Salvage have discovered the professional taper-fit socket.

Roger that!

New puzzlenuts with key on order. I don't misplace keys, I merely had to replicate one I never had. The new key will be stowed where the old key should have been but wasn't because I never had it.

The shop-made key worked very well, did the job, but the new puzzlenuts will have the slip collars that I chiseled off the old ones.

Ain't it great to be able to enjoy your retirement by doing stuff like that?

Jeff

Yup!

I wonder if those special sockets Sears sells for removing rounded nuts and bolts would have worked? Sort of like an inside out easyout. Or one of those "fits anything" sockets that ate just a bunch of spring loaded rods? I like your way better :) Though it is a hard choice between "justifying" the tools ya have or "justifying" the purchase of some new and different tools :)

That is a puzzle- salvage guys usually know all the tricks to defeat anti-theft devices. Might be a local-law thing. Here (upstate NY) a pro mechanic can buy an astounding varietyof what would be called 'burglary tools' right off of the tool truck.

-Carl