How do you get a broken allen key out of a bolt?

I was trying to take off my lock on grips and used the long end of my allen key (the bit with the ball) and it snapped off!

I have tried bouncing the bike on the back wheel to shake it out and holding the bike so the bolt faces down then hitting the back with a hammer but no luck. I am going to try a magnet on it later but I dont hold much hope.

So any ideas how to remove it short of cutting it out and me having to buy new lock ons.

Yep, take a visit to your local ‘machine mart’ and pick up an extractor kit, its a drill bit on one end of it, and a reverse threaded conical-shaped bit on t’other.

drill it out, put the extractor in and put your electric drill on slow, plenty of torque and gently unwind it.

Yes, the same happened to me!!!

jt

I shall give that a go if the magnet doesnt work.

I can’t see you being able to drill into the broken off ball end of the allen key. Is the broken off bit jammed in tight? If not try thye magnet, or blu-tak, or meybe even superglue gel on the end of a matchstick.
I’ve got a spare collar if you end up having to butcher it.

You won’t be able to drill the ball end of the allan key accurately. Try glueing something to it to pull it out? You probably have slight burrs / distortion holding the ball in. Next time don’t use the ball end to undo tight bolts.

I did think about glue but the only glue I have is araldite I might have to buy some more. Next time I wont be able to use the ball because its broken off!

with all due respect, drilling out the snapped end of an allen key shouldn’t really be a pain, if its protruding higher than the allen bolt, mole grips should pull it out. if its further in, then drilling it out – i dont mean with a regular drill bit of course! using one of the extractor kits with the special drill-bit-esq-bit on the flip side of it… i’ve googled and cant find the item I use – but i got it from machine mart, approx £10.

jt 😉

johntawn – you could drill accurately into a bit of metal a couple of mm across? when this bit of metal cannot be held firmly?

jontawn, have we had a wee drinkypoo?

I know this is guna sound weird but a vibrator can sometimes remove stuck things!!! I’m not talking a rabit but an off centre tool in a dremmel or internal grinder for instance. Get it going an hold the handle to your grip. Sometimes shakes the stuck item out. Wear goggles. Off centre stuff has a habit off flying around abit.

I keep my bikes at the in-laws so today I went round to pick it up and when I got home to work on it the broken bit had fallen out. Result.

Now I have managed to do everything I wanted to do with it off and Im a happy boy.

Make the vibrator any way. They make your arm go dead and then !

Ha ha ha. The stranger! Like at the start of gone in 60 seconds. 😆