I was doing a quick clean and lube of linkage bolts here. I went to loosen this bolt and it would not budge. I got out a digital torque meter to watch it while I attempted to loosen it. I got up to 25 nm and the bolt rounded out. In retrosoect, I probably should have applied heat to the bolt because it probably has some red thread locker keeping it from coming loose. Anyway, so far I have attempted to remove it by applying heat then wd40 to get the threading moving. I have used a plastic glove in addition to the hex wrench to give it grip. I tried to use pliers but there is simply not enough material on the bolt end hanging out for it to grab onto. I do not own any bolt extractors although I could probably pick them up. Home Depot has what appear to be a nice Milwaukee set for $20. Another option I'm considering to jump into is to sacrifice a sae hex wrench that I almost never use and bonding it to the bolt with either jb weld or steel stick epoxy putty letting it cure overnight than praying that the epoxy will hold while I apply the torque required to loosen it.
My concern is that the underlying issue with the bolt has not been resolved and that the epoxy will fail when I attempt to apply what could be a very high torque required to loosen it thus resulting in a hex key that was sacrificed in vain.
So, my question are :
1. what else can I do to ensure that the threads can come loose
2. Is a bolt extractor the better option for this use case before attempting the epoxy method or will I end up just wasting my time and money ruining the bolt extractor.
by copharmer