Wall socket bolt sheared off

Leif

Koicarp wrote: »

There is such a thing as an "easy out" used by mechanics, but there is no need if you have 2mm to grab hold of, just lock a pair of mole grips onto it and give it a yank.

Why mole grips rather than pliers? Yes I've heard of an easy out, but it requires a central tap hole. Not easy to do.

Someone said to unscrew if from behind using bent nosed pliers, on the grounds that more thread is round the back.

googler

Leif wrote: »

I thought about that and I would have to use a hand drill as I am not prepared to work on the socket while it is live. My experience with drilling out a bolt from a door is that it is very hard if not impossible to ensure the drill goes through the centre, especially since the bolt is small, and the broken end is rough.

So, isolate the socket or ring of sockets before you start work, surely?

It doesn't matter if you're off-centre, as long as you're not far enough off-centre to reach the thread, you'll be fine.

Koicarp

Leif wrote: »

Why mole grips rather than pliers? Yes I've heard of an easy out, but it requires a central tap hole. Not easy to do.

Someone said to unscrew if from behind using bent nosed pliers, on the grounds that more thread is round the back.

Because you can lock them on tightly and don't have to rely on your grip.

DVardysShadow

keystone wrote: »

2mm is just enough to get some sort of grip on. Don't see that WD40 is going to be much use. The fact that it sheared implies that its cross threaded anyway. I'd just go for the brute force and ignorance approach meself.

The edges of the socket always overlap the backbox. So you could easily carefully trim back the plaster beyond the edges of the box to the point where you could remove the backbox without having to make good afterwards. You'll need to be careful though depending on how securely its in the wall.

Cheers.

The other explanation for it shearing is that it is an old back box, with BA sized thread, but a modern metric screw. They are compatible enough to get a really good start, but incompatible enough to shear over a deep enough section of thread.

I would change the back box.

Leif

Thanks again to everyone.

This evening I removed the mounting box, took about 15 minutes, and inserted a new one, which seems wedged in tight. I put a strip of wood over the box, and banged with a hammer to force the box in. Do I need to fix the box in with anything, or is an interference fit enough? It seems snug.

As there is minor loss of browning, and quite a bit of grey finishing plaster missing round the edge, wold Easi-fill be okay, or should I do deep fill with something else then finish with Easi-fill?

vaio

I'd be inclined to put a screw through the back to make sure it doesn't move in future

Leif

Thanks, I'll do that.

Would people recommend Easi-fill for the patch, or would the deeper damage require another filler? (Damage to browning is no more than 5mm wide in a few places.)