Hammer & drift?

[Itchy]

I read this all over the internet as a method of removing nuts/bolts from things and on BCF once as a method for removing castle bolts, with absolutely everywhere closed to buy a 38mm socket to cut grooves into it (to efectively make me own castle socket) and lacking an angle grinder, I thought I would humour myself and consider hammer and drift.

But as said on the net there is plenty of mention of hammer and drift but what is it?. I had thoughts maybe its stick a fat screw driver into the castle nut erm sticky up bit and hit the screw driver from above (not the end) to shift the bolt.

My current thoughts are to sit and wait till Jan for a local engineering place to cut me a socket, or to wait for a guy on ebay called turbo suzukis to actually respond to me , though he hasn't responded for a week after stating he has one in stock. Or maybe to find a huge chisel and cut a groove out of it using it as a screw driver of some kind.

Any body care to explain?

Ta
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[G]

Drift = any bit of metal you've got lying about that you use to hit stuff .
I've used screw drivers, big wood screws and even some 'proper' drifts I got in a cold chisel set in place of C spanners.

Surely there must be somewhere selling big sockets and angle grinders?

Halfrods for the big socket; screwfix for the grinder.

[Big Pete]

ideally a drift is softer than whatever you are hitting, so you dont damage the part. Brass bar generally works pretty well for steel stuff, but isnt going to be good for a castle nut. Buy a cheap screwdriver, ideally one where the tang goes right through the handle. Its worth putting a rag over when you are driving, sometime the screwdriver tips can shatter.

Better still, as G says, hit Halford for a socket and you can get grinders for a tenner all over the place at the minute.
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[gmanxiii]

Yo dude answer your phone, ive got a castle nut here dunno if its the right size your after though and its missing a tooth.
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[Odie]

If you cannot get a socket, loads of places sell them try "machine mart" for cheap ones you can throw away if you fuck it.
If all else fails try a set of "stilsons".
Stilsons are like an adjustable wrench but better, as you apply pressure to undo or do up they get tighter and grip the nut like anything!
Being adjustable they fit most anything (differnt sizes of stilson's are available).
I have a set that is 3 feet long!, a mate gave them to me, he used to work on the railways.
Loads of applied leverage.
They work on rounded nuts and bolts extreamly well.
Only down side with them is you must have good access to the nut or bolt.
Hope this helps you
Odie
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[Vincent]

If you're talking about what I think, it's actualy quite a good way of removing seized nuts and a method I've used succesfully many times. I usualy use a flat bladed screwdriver, but just the blade with no handle. You just need to get the right angle on the nut and use the screwdriver blade to tap it round. If the nut is hardened, you might need to use a cold chisel to make a nick in the nut for the screwdriver. Once the nut starts to move, it should come off easier with normal methods. obviously, once off, the nut is useless and will have to be binned.

[Itchy]

[G]

I've always used cheap angle grinders and they've never broken on me so far.

Being that it's a pretty essential part of the biking tool kit, they tend to get some use too.