Thread Restorer/Chaser File

[ARCHINSTL]

I encountered this tool for the first time yesterday: I had kinda boogered the threads on a control arm-to-body bolt - not too bad, but I did not want to take the chance of stripping the concealed captive nut, which would have really been a problem.

Now this may seem strange, but we never used this tool in the bicycle shop; if we encountered a stripped axle or whatever, we just used a new whatever - after all, we were in business...and bike parts were never priced anywhere near OE Toy platinum parts!

My file cost almost $14 from NAPA - only place I could find it in STL on a Sunday - none of the other chain stores carried this, whether metric or SAE. It is cheaper from various online sources - and the local HF store did not carry it (although for this bolt I wanted something that would definitely be accurate).

This is a square bar with eight different pitchs, which should cover anything we encounter. It is easy to use and is fairly quick. I mounted the damaged hexhead in a vise and kept rotating it whilst filing. I used cutting oil as well. It also nicely cleaned up some corroded threads on the inside ends of the swaybar.

I definitely think this should be a "must-have" item. It truly works.
While the one in the Sears link is metric, an SAE version is also available for those uses.
Tom M.
EDIT:
This is a link to a Sears page which shows the tool:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... hread+file