Stolen nut and hanger replacement

Howdy y’all, it seems like in more and more areas with civilian traffic nuts and hangers get stripped off of anchor bolts. Teenagers these days. I thought about bringing an adjustable wrench and some extra hangers and nuts for these very situations. I have some Metolius hangers and I guess the standard bolt size is 3/8 or 1/2 inch, diameter, yes? What would you add to your nut bag?

^^^

FYI - If you loctite wedges/5piece it makes different problems.  Spinners that spin inside the rock,more difficulty to replace hardware, and loctiting 5piece may actually be dangerous.  Somtimes loctiting a wedge bolt or quicklink is a great solution.  The double nut tighten against each other is a pretty solid solution for wedges.  If hanger theft is a reoccurring issue setting the routes in glue-ins may reduce chopping as anybody chopping glue ins are really committed to the cause.

3/8 hangers work for 90% of fixed hardware but there is a even mix of threads types - metric (Fixe/Bolt Products) and English (Powers/Hilti)

But what a sick t-shirt.

Seems like something you should bring up with your local ASCA affiliate. Glue-ins should solve hanger theft on the walk ups (can’t speak to the type of stone you’re working with though)

Cold chisel.  Put an "X" in the striking anvil on the stud to keep the nut on and still allow tightening.  

Bryan Hwrote: Howdy y’all, it seems like in more and more areas with civilian traffic nuts and hangers get stripped off of anchor bolts...

For wedge anchors, I've been using this trick in Baja California  for over 30 years. Weld a tiny bead on the end of the bolt to prevent removal of the nut. Grind smooth/round off the tip with an aluminum oxide disk. Stainless steel wire for SS bolts. Avoid iron contamination which interferes with the passivation. MIG welder set to low heat, burst is about 1 second. A hanger has never been stolen yet. The only disadvantage seems to be that once installed, the bolt will protrude an additional 2 threads.

FYI - If you loctite wedges/5piece it makes different problems.  Spinners that spin inside the rock,more difficulty to replace hardware, and loctiting 5piece may actually be dangerous.

Yes, I never use Loctite on five/six piece bolts (they have a wedge at their end which gets dragged into a sleeve).

I always use it though on wedge bolts (the shaft has a nut that stays on the outside of the hole and hanger and short sleeves that come tight on the shaft, inside the hole).

I do this mostly to prevent loosening with use or with the winter's freeze/thaw cycle. It also can help deter theft.

The downside of Loctiting emerges if/when the hanger becomes loose (possible if tiny bits of the underlying rock rub away with constant, pulling-sideways use), or if the hole is bad, resulting in a spinner bolt inside the hole.

On the rare occasions where the first has occurred to me (loosened hanger), it's easy enough to loosen the nut with the Locktite on it (I use blue Locktite, which isn't all that hard to loosen). Re-finish the rock surface under the hanger, retighten and things are back to good.

I've never had a spinner bolt that I didn't know about before the final tightening. So I've never had to remove a Locktited nut from a spinner bolt.

Somewhere I’ve seen a bolt company offer a service where they put a slit in the top of the wedge. Once tightened down you use a wide chisel to spread the top apart slightly. I’m sure this could be done with a band saw. Option two would be to just use said chisel or perhaps a punch to muck up the exposed threads a bit to prevent theft. I see no issue striking a tightened bolt as you can’t drive it back in the hole to loosen at that point. 

mattmwrote: Somewhere I’ve seen a bolt company offer a service where they put a slit in the top of the wedge. Once tightened down you use a wide chisel to spread the top apart slightly. I’m sure this could be done with a band saw. Option two would be to just use said chisel or perhaps a punch to muck up the exposed threads a bit to prevent theft. I see no issue striking a tightened bolt as you can’t drive it back in the hole to loosen at that point.

This is an interesting idea - take a hacksaw blade and saw through/disrupt some of the threads after the new nut and hanger goes on just enough to thwart re-removal. 

Bryan Hwrote:

This is an interesting idea - take a hacksaw blade and saw through/disrupt some of the threads after the new nut and hanger goes on just enough to thwart re-removal. 

A crude method, which also introduces iron contamination, disrupting the passivation of stainless steel. A slightly less crude method would involve using a thin non-ferrous cut-off wheel on an angle grinder or die grinder. Either method will leave a jagged protruding tip on the wedge anchor, a concern for potential injury in a lead fall.

A vice grip on the last few threads after tightening is the easiest.