Freeing Frozen Knobs

Bob Nickels ranickel at MWCI.NET
Sun Apr 1 19:46:50 EDT 2001


>Most set screws are "cup" shaped on the end to get a bite on the
> shaft when tightened securely.

Another tip to supplement Greg's excellent summary:

On a really tight set screw, it's possible for your hex wrench to slip,
"rounding-out" the edges of the hexagon and making it even harder to remove,
especially if your wrench isn't the best, or isn't fully inserted.   Plus
the popular "ball-end" wrenches have less metal to engage with the screw.
So if a set screw feels tight, I try to check to make sure I'm using a good
quality tool and that the end has not been rounded-off.  Then I give it a
light tap to make sure it's inserted as far as possible before applying
torque.  Examine a hex wrench under a bit of magnification and you can
really see what kind of shape it's in, and a careful file or grinder
touch-up can make it good as new.

73, Bob W9RAN




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