Repair Damaged Nuts and Bolts

February 04, 9:10 PM [GMT -5]

Good article. I've used my sets countless times over the years. My first thread file belonged to my grandfather and now is probably over 70 years old and still works perfectly. I finally purchased a metric version several years ago as metric fasteners became more prevelent. During my years as a service technician I also had purchased both the thread taps and dies. One addtional item a person may want to add is an actual thread file. These are designed with a hardened tapered file edge to be used in the bolt pitch. Great for starting the clean-up process on the end of a bolt before using a rethreading die. Another tip for using a rethreading die is to install it on a bolt thread before cutting off a length of the thread. You then can remove the die giving you relatively clean threads at the end of a bolt.

Reminder about using rethreading taps and dies; while they are hardened steel, they are designed to cut new internal or external threads. Attempting to do so will damage or break the rethreading die. Always use threading taps and dies for cutting new threads.