Shearing off bolts in captive screws

[DRD]

I have never had this on my other pinballs before. But it seems my funhouse has white thread lock or alternatively terrible corrosion on the screws like this. It may be that aluminium in the screws is welding itself to the steel in the captive nut. The game is not water damaged. It is filthy, stupid on site repairs were made to the switches so anything could have happened

Normally with tight screws you damage the head. But these just shear off, the philips ones and the hexagonal bolt headed ones alike

I don't want to use a blowtorch or spray penetrating oil onto them !

Is there a knack to removing them please, as this is really starting to annoy me

Thank you

 

[kevlar]

I had this problem with one of my machines, advice from here which worked was a couple of quirts of isopropyl alcohol, let it soak a minute or 2 then try it.

http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/idiots-should-be-banned-from-purchasing-loctite.13281/

 

[BigIan]

I think its just crap metal the shears of at the slightest blockage to movement.

Have done it on loads of playfield screws myself

 

[replicas]

Last time this happened to me I replaced all the posts as most just snapped. Pretty sure that was a Funhouse as well.
Trying the isopropyl alcohol sounds like a plan as it can get pretty expensive replacing all the posts.

 

[ronsplooter]

I had this issue with an old Zacc playfield as the quality if metal they used back in the 70's was ****e! The tip I was told was to tighten slightly (maybe a quarter turn) and then gently unscrew. It won't stop all of them breaking but it definitely helped reduce the number that did

 

[DRD]

Thanks for the advice guys, I feel a lot less stupid now. I think that there is threadlock in these cursed things

Is there a good place to buy these bolts and captive nuts so i don't blow a fortune pls ? I have seen the ones used on the slingshots for £2 or so. This could all turn expensive quite quickly.

D

 

[chris b]

funhouse is always like this not too much you can do about it really

 

[replicas]

let me know what you need , I might have some used posts that could help you out.

 

[t-m]

One tip i heard was to heat them up with a soldering iron, better than using a blow torch!

 

[Moonraker]

One tip i heard was to heat them up with a soldering iron, better than using a blow torch!

The larger the soldering iron spade the better !

 

[replicas]

I take it you don't require any posts/t-nuts.

 

[DRD]

Hi. Thank you for the very kind offer. I got away with only destroying two of the expensive hex bolts in the slingshots plus a number of the relatively inexpensive philips headed bolts that hold the ball guides leading to the flippers.

I needed some parts from andy at mania so added these to the list of stuff i ordered today

I tried the isopropyl alcohol but found the best way to get them out to first tighten a touch. Then repeatedly turn in and out until they freed up. Tedious, but it did generally work

I am convinced that there was white thread lock on these things. Nasty business

 

[replicas]

Good to know you managed to save the majority of the posts.