Hey folks, Mustie1 just ran a video about a "new" tool he got that seems to work very well for rusty screw removal. (New in quotes because it seems to have been out a few years.) Called "Shake-n-Break" it fits into a pneumatic air hammer. Applies pounding to screw while twisting pressure is applied to a side handle.

While nobody seems to have applied the idea to bolts, I reckon it would be worth a shot to make an adapter using an air chisel bit and say a short impact socket extension with a nut welded on stem. Would still have to modify a few sockets to, so that impact got transfered to nut head through socket, which would normally have space behind head of nut and back of socket.

I've got a HF air hammer which has seldom been out of the box. Has several bits that came with it. Might give it a try.
Doc

Update: I take it back. Can get a socket adapter. Impact socket adapter.
Think I might still want to try mzking one.

They are awesome. HOWEVER...…...there has to be significant structure behind to take the pounding or it will at best dimple the area or at worst drive the screw through the panel. Use with extreme caution! We had this tool and several others to remove stuck screws and bolts on military aircraft. Because of the lightweight structure we seldom used this particular tool. The other tools we had were indispensable in our day to day use and I shall try to build a set just for you folks.

Terry

Holy moly, how many pounds of air are you driving your air hammer with Terry? It's supposed to jar the rust, not beat the crap out of it.

I almost lost a finger once using unregulated air on a 16d nailer. Guess I was about 19 at time. Working plant maintenance in one of very first modular housing plants. They were kind of chinsy until they actually sold a few houses. Repair bench didn't have an air regulator. Took front off nailer and "thought" i had cleared the ram track of any obstructions. Reassembled it and hooked it to air line. We had THREE 25 hp compressors feeding the plant (because some dummy thought air pallets would be a great way to move the houses.... not thinking of all the nails laying around to rip the badders.) Anyway, my air tap seldom dipped below 140 psi. Hooked air to nailer, pointed it at a sheet of plywood and pulled trigger.
The obstruction I didn't see deflected the spring steel ram backwards throuch a narrow gap and wrapped it neatly around my trigger finger. Could just as easily gone through it without stalling.
I looked at it a moment just thinking about it. Unplugged gun and walked over to boss and said "I want a regulator!" as I showed him the ram wrapped around my finger..... I got my regulator.
Doc

Doc, I have found that most air chisels/ muffler guns just stop working and hiss at you like a pissed-off tomcat if you pressure them back. At least the three cheapies that I have do. In uncle sam's air force our structural repair (airframe & sheetmetal) shop had several different sizes of rivet guns all the way to a monster that I used to say was one size away from a jackhammer! One I think they called a 9X, would shear a 3/4 inch anchor bolt in a concrete floor in 2 thumps! I just modified a punch for my gun to buck 3/16 soft set rivets in the glides on the battery box to my motorhome. I couldn't source steel pop rivets locally and I had a drawer of soft sets my father in law gave me, so I went old school! I need to get some materials up but I am going to do a thread on building several of our threaded hardware removal tools soon.

Terry