WINNING TIP

RESTORE THE THREAD

We have all had the experience of taking something apart and painting it and, when it’s time to reassemble, threaded studs and bolt shafts are covered in paint and the nuts won’t go back on. They bind and get stuck and when you force the issue, things go bad; nuts get stripped and things get messy. Next time, try this handy tip:

Take a standard nut of the same size and file at least one slot across all the threads at about 90 degrees to them, about 1-2 mm deep (you can use a needle file or a junior hacksaw blade). Carefully turn the nut on the shaft – going forward a few turns and back again. You will see the threads getting cleaned as you progress. In some cases, you may need to remove the nut altogether and clean the accumulated debris before the whole shaft is clean. It normally takes less than two minutes and you can save hours.

The slot that you filed allows a place for the old muck or paint to accumulate and turns an ordinary nut into a sort of die. Once you remove the nut, the shaft will be clean and perfect, ready for a new nut. This is great for repainting projects, nuts that have been off for a long time, rusted or dirty shafts and even slightly damaged threads. When I tried using masking tape to prevent the threads getting clogged, I ended up using this method to clean out all the old tape. No more struggling – and all for the cost of a single nut. JUSTIN VAN DER MOLEN RANDPARK RIDGE