Dealing with square head nuts and bolts

[staninlowerAL]

This is a topic that most all of us who work on older equipment have had to deal with at times. I recently reworked an older disc harrow that had all square bolts and nuts. Some of them were in between the disc blades and were inaccessible for combination end wrenches so rather than spend the bucks for a socket which I never was able to find short of ordering from internet sellers I decided to fab a tool for the 1 inch nuts and hold the head of the bolts with a combination wrench. I cut two pieces of scrap 1/4 x 1.5 heavy angle about 3 inches long and trimmed one of them on both sides so that it would fit inside the other one thus forming a 1 inch square hollow tube that was 3 inches long. (I used a scrap piece of 1 inch square tubing to keep the pieces in position and welded the two sides together.) I removed the square tubing and then cut a scrap 1 inch hex head bolt about 1.25 inches long and welded it inside the new 1 inch square tube thus creating a square socket with a hex head that can be used with a variety of tools. The picture shows the 1.5 hex head bolt on the top and the 1 inch square nut inserted on the lower end. Worked very well and allowed me to use a 3/4 inch drive socket and ratchet to remove those rusted in place 1 inch nuts. JMHO Stan

[Bill Hudson]

Great idea! I've had sets of 8-point sockets, 1/4" and 1/2' drives, since the early 60s. These puppies have gotten much more use in the last 15 years than in the previous 35 or 40 years. Flea markets or garage sales can be sources for those sockets.

[staninlowerAL]

Bonus: I discovered that a short length (about 1 inch) of square tubing inserted in to the square 1 inch opening will allow it to fit 3/4 inch square bolts/nuts. I placed a 1 inch square nut into the opening first, then the square tubing. That allows for a jack screw to remove the square tubing insert if it gets stuck.