No matter what you’re working on, if it’s been in service a while, sooner or later you’re going to end up with a seized nut or bolt or pulley or something like that. Well, lots of times heat is going to be the answer: get it glowing red and it comes right off. One way to do that is with this Mini-Ductor from Induction Innovations, a pretty clever tool.  It’s flameless and it uses inductive energy to heat the part, comes with a bunch of different adaptors to fit different sizes, and does a great job! But make sure that you follow all the instructions that come with it otherwise you could get yourself in trouble.

But no matter how loose you get that nut or bolt with heat you may still have a problem because when you put the wrench on it, it may be rusted away so that the wrench no longer fits and just spins on it. What do you do then?  This is called a Bionic Wrench and the Bionic Wrench has a series of jaws that as you squeeze it the jaws come inward to grab any size of bolt or nut. That means that you don’t have to have exactly the right size because this fits them all.

It could get you out of a lot of trouble.  They’re different sizes and they’re highly recommended to have in your toolbox. But maybe you don’t have an induction heater. Maybe you need to use old-fashioned flame, a hand held torch or perhaps acetylene torch.  That would mean that you would need a Uni-Weld Flame Barrier.  This is actually like a blanket that goes on parts that you don’t want to get hot. Now what happens here is on the white side of this, it resists the heat, reflects it back and it protects everything underneath it. Now that can get you out of trouble or keep you out of trouble and it’s inexpensive, readily available, and if you’re ever going to use a torch around an automobile or any type of equipment you should have multiples of these on hand.

 


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