Using extreme cold to remove stuck fasteners

May 1, 2008 | By Staff

The February Readers’ Tips reminded me of a technique I’ve used for removing a stuck fastener: extreme cold.

Invert a can of the compressed air used to clean keyboards and, wearing eye protection, spray the extremely cold liquid on a stuck bolt for 30 seconds. This even works well on flush-to- the-surface Allen screws used as plugs in an engine block.