Loctite

[dirty_sanchez]

Originally Posted by Prodigium

I've used lots of loctite, lock nuts, double nuts and nylocks. I spend lots of time reading techy stuff, especially marine stuff (No surprise, retired Navy I am). I found a new kind of lock washer from a Swedish company named NordLock.
Go to Nord-lock.com, click news & media and watch the video. Convinced me to use them.

Nordlocks are a great product. But like most products on the face of planet earth, they do have their shortcomings.

I've seen them for years at various trade shows around the country.

Just sticking to the facts, they are as follows:

Nordlock lock washers don't stop rust-lock and do not stop galvanic corrosion between male and female threads. Loctite Liquid or Stick threadlockers do both.

Nordlock lock washers cost roughly 5 to 10 times more per application than a drop, two, or three of Loctite Liquid or Stick threadlockers.

A Nordlock user must have an assortment of different sized lock washers available instead of one bottle or Quickstix that works on all sizes of threaded fasteners.

It's fun to see the deer in the headlights look "Yeah, but this Amp goes to 11" look on the Nordlock Reps. face when asked about cost per application, stopping rust lock, and assorted sizes needed when compared to the industry leader.

They are a unique product though and do have their place in certain applications.

This thread has been pretty quiet lately- Do any of you have any questions?

Peace, Love, and Glue,

Dirty

[KLboxeR]

Originally Posted by dirty_sanchez

This thread has been pretty quiet lately- Do any of you have any questions?

Peace, Love, and Glue,

Dirty

Yep, I got a question, Dirty.

Do you have any tricks for undoing/heating threadlocked fasteners where you don't want to damage the finish or were you have heat sensitive components close to the fastenr (like wires and such).

I had a recent dilemma where I was trying to loosen a set of clip-ons on the bike. They had blue locktite holding them fast and I had a bitch of a time trying to hit them with a heat gun or small torch to get things loosened up. With all the wiring, paint and finished metal around, I was really worried about screwing something up.

Tips/tricks?

[GSlite]

Couple minutes with a soldering iron?

[Yossarian™]

Originally Posted by KLboxeR

I had a recent dilemma where I was trying to loosen a set of clip-ons on the bike. They had blue locktite holding them fast and I had a bitch of a time trying to hit them with a heat gun or small torch to get things loosened up.

Correct me if I am wrong but you should not need heat to remove a fastener that has blue loctite on it. Red loctite is another story.

[dirty_sanchez]

KLboxR- That's strange you had a tough time breaking loose fasteners held on with blue threadlocker.

If blue was still too strong for you, the next notch down is the purple low strength products like 222. But keep in mind 222 was developed to lower warranty claims of temple pieces falling off of eye glasses years back. Purple is for fasteners smaller than 1/4".

The blue stuff is considered "Service Removable". Hand tools to bolt it together, hand tools to unbolt it. Blue is all I use on anything with a spark plug at my house.

The breakloose and prevailing torque is MUCH lower on blue products than it is for the red products which are considered permenant.

Red threadlockers are considered permenant and will likely require heat for disassembly. They're colored red like a stop sign so folks STOP to decide if they wish to make a threaded assembly permenant.

Yep, localized heat in the form of a soldering iron, a blow torch, flaming WD-40, etc until you see that first whisp of smoke and you're ace in the hole. Be warned, an oil seal or some other part that does not play well with heat or open flame might be in close proximity to that heat source.

Anaerobic chemistries like threadlockers all cure into a thermoset plastic that isolate dissimilar metals preventing galvanic corrosion and rust lock.

Dirty

[KLboxeR]

Maybe I assumed it was blue, I guess the residue was just kind of white-ish. The fastener was stainless and I guess it could have been over torqued or red locktited (is that a word ). It wasn't coming off without heat for sure.

I tried the soldering iron but I think the forks were too much of a heat sink. It didn't seem to work real well. I might need a more powerful soldering iron, though.

Edit:
Thanks for the reply!
(you were editing, while I was writing )

[dirty_sanchez]

Those little blow torches crackheads use might be the ticket.

You're right, all of that metal is probably pulling the heat away from the problem area.

Dirty

[GSMark]

Originally Posted by KLboxeR

Maybe I assumed it was blue, I guess the residue was just kind of white-ish. The fastener was stainless and I guess it could have been over torqued or red locktited (is that a word ). It wasn't coming off without heat for sure.

I tried the soldering iron but I think the forks were too much of a heat sink. It didn't seem to work real well. I might need a more powerful soldering iron, though.

Edit:
Thanks for the reply!
(you were editing, while I was writing )

Sometimes you will have go give the fastiner an "impact". This is done with a large enough (brass) punch to not distort the head of the bolt. A big hammer is also required. Just smack the head of the bolt very hard. This method along with heat works very well. You may also want to use some Kroil http://www.kanolabs.com/google/ along with the "impact" method.

Tightining bolts to the proper torque specs, from hear on out, will prevent this from ever happing again. Good luck.

Hope this helps.

[datchew]

Got any foodgrade type of loctite?

I'm making a 3-tier, gravity fed beer brewing setup out of 3 full sized stainless kegs and stainless fittings (ball valves, sight gauges, thermometers).

Instead of pipe dope, is there a flavor of your favorite funk that will seal, prevent cold welding of 304 stainless, be food-grade safe, and withstand temperatures up to 220F (boil kettle)?

(and then can i brush my teeth with the same tube?)

[dirty_sanchez]

Originally Posted by datchew

Got any foodgrade type of loctite?

I'm making a 3-tier, gravity fed beer brewing setup out of 3 full sized stainless kegs and stainless fittings (ball valves, sight gauges, thermometers).

Instead of pipe dope, is there a flavor of your favorite funk that will seal, prevent cold welding of 304 stainless, be food-grade safe, and withstand temperatures up to 220F (boil kettle)?

(and then can i brush my teeth with the same tube?)

Yep, 567PST. Good for 400F, 10,000psi, NSF 61 rated, prevents stainless from galling, and makes for a rather nice compliment to Russian Caviar-or spread lightly on toast with jam.

The pn. for a 6ml tube is 56707

Dirty

[warewolf]

Question from another thread: any problems using Loctite (esp. 243) on nyloc nuts? Someone suggested some threadlockers could damage the plastic in the nylocs.

[ibafran]

How come I have such a tough time storing blue Loc-tite?

Cap is on tight. Air is left in tube. Stored on end with the tube cap down. 3-4 months later, the tube seems dry and no precious Loc-tite is available.

I don't use much but the usage is always critical.

Sorry, I am too lazy to re-read the whole thread looking for the answer.

[dirty_sanchez]

Warewolf- Using Nylon insert nuts along with a threadlocker are sort of a belt AND suspenders sort of thing. Nylon insert nuts are designed to be a one use only type nut believe it or not.

Anaerobic chemistries like threadlockers are can stress crack certain kinds of plastics faster than you can spit. I forget what sorts of plastics don't get along with threadlockers, but just keep them off of all plastics....except nylon insert nuts.

Threadlockers won't damage nylon inserts in nylock nuts.

As far as causing rustlock, nylon insert nuts are the worst of all. Moisture gets trapped under the nylon insert and just sits there.


IBAFran- Don't feel bad because I get this complaint all of the time because folks just don't know what makes threadlockers cure. I usually get the complaint from red threadlockers though.

The problem you are having is due to contamination issues. You're swiping or rubbing the tip of the bottle on the base metal and then the contaminated liquid falls back into the bottle and cures to a solid plug, then you have to buy more. Good for us, but not good for you.

Early on in this thread I talked about how you are supposed to use free fall drops of the liquid while not touching the tip of the bottle on the threaded fastener. If you do touch the tip of the bottle you're picking up metal ions which are one of the ingredients anaerobic chemistries need to cure.

Our bottles are oxygen permeable-air can get in and get out-and this also makes the chemistries more stable.

Another quick way to turn an expensive bottle of liquid threadlocker into a solid plug is to cap the bottle with a nail. Don't laugh. I see this as well.

And now for my usual legal disclaimer: I am ADVriders very own purveyor of Hope and Change. I am also a rather distinguished Teleprompter Reader, Boil Lancing Technician, and official Loctite Factory Rep. who's not dead yet, and I approved this message.

Dirty

[FakeName]

Thank you for your Loctite wisdom and the ability and willingness to share it here!

So- what about using the sticks directly on bolts- will that cause the ionic transfer as well?

[dirty_sanchez]

Good question.

It's worth $64,000. Others might say it's an ancient Chinese Secret.

You're absolutely right about contamination of the tip of the stick threadlockers.

I've never heard of the product hardening from transfer of active metal ions.

The guys with the dirty lab coats and crazy white hair won't tell the field folks why this doesn't happen.

Good Question.

Dirty