Tip for Les Paul Owners...

Sapient

Sapient

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I spent about a week using various techniques to get a stripped brass truss bar nut off my '58. I thought it was done for, actually.

To make a long story short, what worked like a charm on a completely rounded and shrunken (from digging at it) nut was a reverse grip nut socket tool. The KEY is to lightly hammer it all the way down so you get a good grip on the nut. I had to go 1 size down from the normal 5/16 because I removed so much ...nut matter in previous release attempts. If you use the normal 5/16 or go down one, they are both included in this kit. The price here is a steal in case you want to already have them. Irwin is a very good brand as well and these are made in USA.

Also, I didn't use a drill motor ...no ...no. A regular insertable 1/4 hand screwdriver was fine. Work slowly and know that once it's cracked loose the most important part is done. :yesway:

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Happy nut picking.
 
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Sapient said:
I spent about a week using various techniques to get a stripped brass truss bar nut off my '58. I thought it was done for, actually.

To make a long story short, what worked like a charm on a completely rounded and shrunken (from digging at it) nut was a reverse grip nut socket tool. The KEY is to lightly hammer it all the way down so you get a good grip on the nut. I had to go 1 size down from the normal 5/16 because I removed so much ...nut matter in previous release attempts. If you use the normal 5/16 or go down one, they are both included in this kit. The price here is a steal in case you want to already have them. Irwin is a very good brand as well and these are made in USA.

Also, I didn't use a drill motor ...no ...no. A regular insertable 1/4 hand screwdriver was fine. Work slowly and know that once it's cracked loose the most important part is done. :yesway:

View attachment 98320


Happy nut picking.
Click to expand...
Solid advice.
 
Cool ! Working on cars all the time, those sockets are your friends. Have the lug nut kit for impact wrench. They are your friends !!

Now on allen wrench type truss rod. When they strip..( unfortunately they are a lot from people using wrong size allen on it). if its SAE --try metric if its metric try--SAE. They are slightly dif sizes but pretty close . Sometimes you can get one in there pretty decent & move the truss rod for set up. Also there are rounded allen tip sets you can get that help get wedged in there but kinda are not good for regular use as they tend to knock off the wall for the grip

Had a real bad stripped one once. Had to actually force the allen in there & leave it then bang it off when was adjusted. When that metal becomes all gouged up & loses grip on wrench. fun fun times.
 
BFT Gibson said:
Cool ! Working on cars all the time, those sockets are your friends. Have the lug nut kit for impact wrench. They are your friends !!

Now on allen wrench type truss rod. When they strip..( unfortunately they are a lot from people using wrong size allen on it). if its SAE --try metric if its metric try--SAE. They are slightly dif sizes but pretty close . Sometimes you can get one in there pretty decent & move the truss rod for set up. Also there are rounded allen tip sets you can get that help get wedged in there but kinda are not good for regular use as they tend to knock off the wall for the grip

Had a real bad stripped one once. Had to actually force the allen in there & leave it then bang it off when was adjusted. When that metal becomes all gouged up & loses grip on wrench. fun fun times.
Click to expand...
Yea, the idea is to get the perfect size (whatever that may be after the nut is all chewed up) that can be tapped lightly with a hammer so that it firmly fits over the complete nut. Man, before that I went as far as liquid welding a socket to the stripped nut hoping it would hold it enough to come off. The "weld" broke pretty quick. Useless attempt completely.

Also, with a Gibson truss you want the socket to be narrow an thin walled enough to fit in an all the way over the nut. What I listed is good for that. A lot of those reverse impact sockets are too thick and heavy-duty for jobs in narrow spaces.
 
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