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Tried a copped 1/2" drive breaker bar for tight flange bolts
Stripped a 1" nut on a feedwater line last Tuesday, then I hacked 18" of scaffold pipe over a cheap Harbor Freight ratchet and spun it free in 3 hits, anyone else reinforce your tools instead of buying the bigger gun?
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alicecraig1mo ago
Ever notice how nobody talks about the failure point on the tool itself, not the nut? That scaffold pipe trick works great until the ratchet head lets go and you're picking teeth out of your knuckles, I've seen it happen twice on site. I always weld a socket onto a length of solid bar instead of using adapters or extensions, because those are the weak links that twist and snap. The real hack is knowing when the pipe is long enough to do the job but short enough that you're not putting 400 ft-lbs through a $9 ratchet and praying. You got lucky this time, but I'd rather spend an afternoon building a proper breaker bar I can trust than gamble my face on a rental tool. What did the bolt look like after, was it the zinc galling that fought you or just old rust?
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