Thread Locking Compounds

[gingertube]

Yep - get the mother, wife, girlfriend, daughter, boyfriend, whatever to hand over the old nail polish bottle(s). Also good for tamper evident seal of bias controls.
Cheers,
Ian

[Bill Moore]

The green Loctite package says that you need to use "localized heat" to disassemble parts.

Drew, they say that for all of their products, but the green will easily unscrew without any problems.

[Dai H.]

the (green, blue, etc.) stuff in some Japanese equipment (Roland, etc.) AFAIK is Threebond anaerobic sealant (I'm sure there must be equivalent products from other makers like Locktite or whomever as well) :

http://www.threebond.co.jp/en/product/s ... a1300.html

IIRC there were different strengths and the specific way you applied it to the nut/thread differed on how fixed you wanted the bond to be, and (I think) it was dissolvable with alcohol (to enable easy rework with a commonly avail. solvent).

I've also read about some stuff called Glyptal(sp?) which sounded the same in intended purpose (but have never tried to look for info it).

[Stevem]

When in a pinch I have used a short section of fishing line of a workable poundage, or a strand from a nylon rope for anything threaded, temp permitting of course!
Dentle floss works great for that bridge screw that always seems to come loose only at gigs and during your best solo of the night!

[rp]

I'm a real amp dork as i really enjoyed this post and went right to look up Loctite 7400:

http://uk.farnell.com/loctite/1705056/v ... dp/3072034

YIKES - and that's GBP - for .6ozs! It prolly cheaper to put Beluga caviar and Tattinger on your nuts

I've used nail polish for years, I go to the discount places and find it for like $2, and you can use clear for a seamless effect if you don't want the Marshall red quality control look. One thing though, when you remove a screw it comes off like there was nothing on it, so I wonder if nail polish actually works?

Put in about 2 dozen outdoor speakers on a 50m yacht, those things are about $150-$350@ at least to the client. PM gave me some red IIRC loctite for the binding posts. Month later about half had to come out for some reason, it was the permanent loctite, if there is such a thing, or it didn't like the 105C heat we were in but none came out - and never will, the binding posts might as well have been epoxied. We destroyed two then stopped. Whatever the reason was, the program was quickly changed to leave 'em all where they are and forget it ever happened. I'm scared of loctite after that.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Nail polish - can easily enough be pried or scraped off. If you need to, there IS nail polish remover, which is acetone mixed with mineral oil. Or you can go straight acetone. (Either one is handy to have around in case you super-glue your fingers together, or anything else you didn't intend to super glue.) Same solutions for threebond.

Caig spray cleaner has a nice mix of solvents in it including acetone & heptane & dissolves lots of gooey cruddy stuff.

Sorry to hear about your Loctite misadventure rp, shows us ya gotta pick the right Loctite product, or else...

I swear some Crate & recent Ampeg hardware is super-glued. What a PIA to get apart. A dab of Caig cleaner on these helps loosen the glue.

Glyptal - sort of red-orange glop - I used to see it in GC chem bottles at the parts stores, but they've gone the way of the dinosaur. If you happen to be near a Fry's or something like that, could be found in that sort of place. Might be able to search some out on the interwebs. I never much liked the stuff but it was handy in some cases to deal with sticking wires in-place on hi voltage gear up to @ 30 KV back when I did such things.

Beluga & Taittinger on my nuts? I never could afford to go to that kind of cat house... Sounds like fun though!

[David Root]

Loctite Threadlocker 271 (red).

Once I had to remove some boards for a rebuild. Soldering iron 700 deg. on the nut/bolt joint at the chassis helped but needed some considerable work with a pair of Visegrips too.

Every time I forget to use it the standoffs will eventually work loose.

[pdf64]

One thing though, when you remove a screw it comes off like there was nothing on it, so I wonder if nail polish actually works?

I know what you mean, nail polish seems to go brittle and when broken off leaves nothing behind.
Even so it's probably sufficient to stop nuts vibrating off the thread etc.
7400 is tougher but doesn't make removal a PITA like threadlock.
Also consider that as threadlock is intended to work its way into crevices, it tends to be quite 'runny' and if it gets into relays, switches, sockets etc it could contaminate the mechanism and contact points. So best to keep threadlock well away from such items.
ie threadlock and locking paint different substances for different applications and are not interchangeable.
Blocjelt seems more like nail varnish than 7400, especially in price, but at least it's intended for this application http://uk.farnell.com/jelt/6967/varnish ... dp/3619345
Pete

[pops]

I have used nail polish and years later is still there. It will break easily when turned, but helps to stop the screw from turning initially very well and seems to last if it is not disturbed. If you don't get the screw tight in the first place i could see it coming off as the screw moves, but if it is tight i have had no problems staying tight with polish.

[rp]

I usually drop a little blob on too rather than just brush it across. Now I need to find a color that says - me!