Remove Stubborn Saw Nut

This is a small Robt Sorby dovetail saw.  The handle needs to be repaired and one split nut is mushed up. The spine and blade are great, although the blade needs to be sharpened.

Out come the supplies. The alcohol is for epoxy cleanup. The steel wool is to clean the grunge off the split nuts. The dental pick is to clean the screwdriver slot on the good split nut. I have an extra steel nut in case I need to epoxy nuts to the front and back of the saw nut. The putty knife … I always keep that handy just in case.

The split nuts before cleaning with steel wool and the dental pick.

The split nuts after cleaning with steel wool and the dental pick.

Mixing up some regular two-part epoxy from the local box store. I thought it would be enough to just glue a steel nut to the brass split nut.

I epoxied the steel nut to the mushed up brass nut and let it harden overnight. It is probably a good idea to apply epoxy only to the perimeter of the steel nut so it does not adhere to the brass bolt at the centre of the saw nut.

Coaxing gently with a socket driver.

It came off surprisingly easy.

I used the heated tip of a soldering pen to break the epoxy bond. I applied the tip to the steel nut and it freed up quickly.