Tool Expectations

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-

[RayThom]

I have a 1/2" drive, 22" breaker bar. It has never met a fastener it couldn't loosen.

Torque -- it's nature's Liquid Wrench.

[Jarlaxle]

Seen some it wouldn't...which is why I have an impact wrench. If that won't do it...time for the torch.

[Burning Petard]

I appreciate this progression. On a bicycle, the bottom bracket fitting (an axel and bearings that goes through the frame where the pedals are) needs to be TIGHT. Least bit of movement and the parts beat themselves to death. A shop in Newark DE that has long since gone away after trying mightily to operate as a coop, had a routine to tighten down these fittings. First an ordinary wrench was used and tightened as far as one person could. Then a 20 foot pipe was slipped over the wrench handle. Then everybody present in the shop carefully balanced on the pipe, and bounced together on it. To remove, spray a bit of lube on the area and then reverse the process. With a few bounces, it always worked.

snailgate

[Big RR]

I recall snapping the head off a washing machine bolt with a breaker bar. It was reverse thread (but I didn't know); the funny thing was that the bolt then had a piece I could grab with a needle nose pliers and it unscrewed right out after the head snapped off.