Refastening

[S/V Laura Ellen]

I begin the task of refastening next week. I would appreciate any advice on removing badly rusted/corroded fasteners. With 2500+ fasteners to remove I need to find an efficient method.

Anyone out there have any experience and/or tricks of the trade they are willing to share.

[Bob Smalser]

Getcha a good selection of bits for your sweep brace from Jamestown, Ebay, or one of the woodworker/chairmaker suppliers like Highland Hardware. Yankee screwdrivers are handy, but will ruin your carpal tunnels quickly on a big job....hence the brace.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/5457882/70304708.jpg

If the fasteners are common slots, then if necessary, grind the edges of those bits so as to fit your bung holes without touching and damaging the surrounding planking wood...the bit on the far right in the pic is an example. If refastening with the next size screw and a larger plug, this may not matter much, but check first, as a given size countersink can fit a couple sizes of screws.

Push out your bungs/plugs by driving a thin #6 SS screw in a power driver into the center of the plug. If they were glued in by anything stronger than paint, sometimes a rap with an appropriate-sized machinist punch can break the glue joint before removal. When I install them, I roll them in varnish or paint dregs in a shallow pan, trying not to goo up the screw slot as I tap them home. I've also cut plugs from house-dried wood so they'd swell a bit after a few days outdoors and fit tight without any goo at all to hold them in. If badly glued in, this phase can be a horror story of damaged planks, so proceed with caution.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7534648/100694055.jpg

Break all your screws loose using the brace before running them out with a power driver. Otherwise you'll strip enough heads to eat up any time saved by using the power driver exclusively. Refasten using the same sequence....no power driver has a sensitive enuf clutch to drive screws that last turn home without damaging the threads on a high percentage of fasteners when compared to a brace or Yankee....and damaged wood is where rot often begins. I red lead all screw holes using a thin swab and dip my screws in bedding compound just before I drive them.

Screw slots that won't come clean and fasteners that seem welded to the wood by corrosion often respond to a sacrificial screwdriver bit heated to dull red and allowed to heat the screw a bit as it melts the goo in the slot, followed by a light hammer tap. Follow with a tempered bit to actually remove the screw, of course. Dave Fleming's method...works better than the soldering iron I used to use.

There are lotsa ways to remove hopelessly buggered screws....drilling, Easyouts, etc...and I'll leave that for others...starting with brace or Yankee, I don't have that many I can't drill/Easyout, but Jamestown and others have some new screw-removing gizmos I haven't tried yet.

[S/V Laura Ellen]

Thanks Bob, I be making my first attempt on planks that I know will be replaced. If I run into problems I will be back with more questions.

If it all works well, I'll be back with progress photos.

[Richard Smith]

Here is one of the new screw-removing gizmos Bob is referring to - an "Unscrew-um" - available from Jamestown. I use this as my next to the last resort. You have to grind off the head first. I use a Dremmel tool with a grout removal bit. It also helps to form a point where the head was - just to help get the Unscrew-um started.

The tool is pretty amazing. You run the drill in reverse as the tube grinds its way down the shaft. At some point there is enough friction to grab the screw and back it out. This usually happens just when you think it is not going to work. Hint: Don't start and stop the drill to see how you are doing. Doing so tends to break off what you have started on the screw. Just keep going. The screw will back out when it is time.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/Rnismith/Tools/usw2.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/Rnismith/Tools/us1w.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/Rnismith/Tools/us3w.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/Rnismith/Tools/us4w.jpg

[S/V Laura Ellen]

Richard: Thanks for the pics. I have ordered at set of Unscew-ums from TLTOOLS. The screws in the photo look to be in very good shape, would the unscrew-ums work if the screw was half rusted away? I think most of my fasteners are iron oxide in the shape of a screw.

[Lew Barrett]

Really punky-funky fasteners may come out in bits from time to time with an unsrew-em, but they will eventually come out. It will be a trying job whatever you elect to do. The issue with sheared fasteners will be removing the detritus from the cutting tool, which can be harder than getting the fastener out in the first place. At least that has been my experience using unscrew-ems with wasted fasteners; a tool I like, by the way.
I'm curious Richard; if the unscrew-em approach is your second-to-last resort, what is your last resort?
Lew

[Paul Scheuer]

Vice grips. And don't be afraid to customize the tip.

[Richard Smith]

RE: "The issue with sheared fasteners will be removing the detritus from the cutting tool, which can be harder than getting the fastener out in the first place."
> I just put the unscrew-um in a vise and drive the detritus through with a nail.

RE: "what is your last resort?"
> See http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=6078&highlight=runabout

[Lew Barrett]

I just put the unscrew-um in a vise and drive the detritus through with a nail.

That's sort of what I was saying......;)

Regarding your last resort. It seems way too time intensive for a large vessel. If you have an unscrew-em set around, go to the next larger size and use it like a hole saw; drill around the fastener and it all drills out in the wood, then you get to knock the detritus out:D

Lew

[Jay Greer]

This is kind of like asking a surgeon to operate on a patient by brail! The,"Unscrewums" are great for removing most bronze fastenings and will work on steel screws as well. But the bits will wear at an alarming rate, when working with steel, and the procedure can become quite costly! This is, also, at the sacrifice of strength in the frames due to the invasion of the tool into the material. Often there is less trauma to the structure to place new fastenings, of the same material, at a safe distance from the origional. However, every job is different and I would first try the easiest and most practical method before going for invasive surgery!
JG

[Lew Barrett]

Last resort only....