Absolutley not a joke. Lowes may not have them, but my "Small Town" style "Mom & Pop" hardware store keeps them in stock for people like me.

Sounds like a joke but it isn't. Many times you'll find that the torque and the heat combine to help ease out the broken screw.

Besides, how do you think they drill the holes for Left Hand Thread?

with a left-hand tap, it wouldn't matter what type of drill... would it?

Me thinks you're being a tad too serious......

that wasn't suppose to read as a smart-a$$ reply. Just trying to logic...

That my post was strictly tongue in cheek.

A hole is still a hole, the tap doesn't care how it got there.

My post regarding using Left Hand or CCW Drill Bits to drill the holes for a Left Hand Thread Tap was just pulling your leg.

Now do you see why I said you were being a tad too serious? And don't forget that even Spock was known to pun.

Mike, the main reasoning behind the left hand drill bit is this.

If you have a broken bolt, and drill a pilot hole for an E-Z Out, when you insert the E-Z Out, you are forcing it into a hole that is smaller than the E-Z Out, therefore you are applying extra outward pressure which is increasing the forces on the threads.

While using a left hand drill bit, you will be lessening the amount of metal in the center of the broken bolt, which lessens the outward pressure on the threads which hopefully will allow the heat and torque of the drill to retract the bolt when the drill bit is digging into the metal. While you are lessening the pressure on the threads, you are at the same time applying force to back the bolt out at the same time.

Of course this only works when you can drill the pilot hole as near the center as possible. After drilling the pilot hole, you can then use the next size drill bit to enlarge the pilot hole, and sooner or later one of them is going to either take so much out that the drill bit will back what is left right out, or one of the drill bits will more than likely dig itself into the bolt and back it out. Ever tried to enlarge a hole in a piece of metal and have the drill bit end up only making a couple "threads" and the bit runs itself in all the way and the only way to get it out is to reavers the drill?

Originally posted by EScanlon

That my post was strictly tongue in cheek.

My post regarding using Left Hand or CCW Drill Bits to drill the holes for a Left Hand Thread Tap was just pulling your leg.

A "smilie" would have clued us all in on your intention.

I, too, thought you were serious.

Originally posted by MDyer

Damn, I'm in the machine tool business, and I still fell for it. Made sense to me that there would be drills with CCW flutes. Oh well, the guy at Lowe's got a charge out of it.:stupid:

MDyer:

Now you want to go and buy one of these lefty drill bits and take it into Lowes. Tell them you bought it from one of the left-handed shops...:stupid:

"A hole is still a hole, the tap doesn't care how it got there."

By Escanlon.

Sounds like a statement from an irresponsible teenager.

Whack everything with a hammer before trying to undo it.

I thought that all the drills were left twisted south of the Equator.

or was that the toilet bowls? I can't remember! I do know they go around the round-a-bouts backwards in Australia. Crazy man!