Grinding a bolt head off a Cessna panel taught me to check the socket before blaming the bolt

Nora Grant · 2026-10-25T03:00:04.41385+00:00

Last Tuesday I was pulling the inspection panel on a 172 at our hangar in Reno and one screw felt locked up solid. I leaned on it with a ratchet and rounded the head clean off, which meant drilling it out and losing an hour of my morning. Turned out the 12 point socket I grabbed was a sloppy fit on that head, so the corners chewed it up before the screw even thought about moving. I told my lead what happened and he just nodded and said "wrong tool, that's all it is." Now I hold the socket on the fastener and wiggle it first, and honestly it saves me a lot of swearing. Anyone got a trick for getting a rounded screw out of those flush panels without scratching the skin?

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Grinding a bolt head off a Cessna panel taught me to check the socket before blaming the bolt | Aircraft Mechanics - Hub Chatter