Red loctite removal

I like the soldering gun idea, you are not going to overheat a steel screw with a soldering gun and there is no open flame, just heat it a bit and try it.
 
Your not gping to overheat anything with a pencil torch even if you tried. They simply can not put out enough heat energy to heat soak a large piece of steel or aluminum. A pencil torch directly to the screw will do the trick, not to forget that aluminum will absorb the localized heat and dissipate it to the entire mass, while the steel screw will get hot very fast, melting the locktite while the rect of the aluminum stays cool, even the material surrounding the screw.
 
Well sure....it'll heat the screw....but when to stop heating? The nice part about my method is that you know *exactly* when you've applied the minimum amount of required heat (as the screw starts to turn :) )

My experience with heating Red Loctite is that it appears to have a certain "kindling point" which when reached degrades the loctite instantly causing a visible "puff" at the threads. Thats when I stop heating and easily loosen the threads. That said, I've never used "Red" on tiny parts, only "Blue" which requires no heat.
 
Stand a hex key in the set screw and heat it cherry hot, it will put the heat directly into the set screw. When you see the loctite react (bubble, smoke, go liquid) pull the hot key insert a cold hex key and spin out the screw.

You have now annealed the first hex key and from here on out it is only good for heating up set screws.
This method works well when pulling painted assemblies apart.
 
Proper high grade fasteners torqued to proper torque specifications do not require thread locking compounds.

This is advice that is true. But only on Gunnutz. In the real world there are plenty of applications where use of Loctite is specified for a very good reason.

There are a lot of folks that use Loctite where it is not needed. However, different metals, vibration and thermal expansion, the space available for fasteners being limited by design, or the consequences of failure create a legitimate need for thread lockers.
 
"...never had any success myself using penetrating oils on loctite..." That's because it doesn't work. Kind of pointless to make a product for sealing threads if it dissolves with ordinary solvent. Only heat will remove Lock-Tite.
 
"...never had any success myself using penetrating oils on loctite..." That's because it doesn't work. Kind of pointless to make a product for sealing threads if it dissolves with ordinary solvent. Only heat will remove Lock-Tite.

The quote system built into the forum works a lot better for quoting people that way people can tell who you're quoting and read what they said not only a small chunk of it.
 
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