Lefty loosey, Righty tighty

A mechanic's nursery rhyme.

Nearly all the drill bits on this planet

are right-hand drill bits;

and like the rhyme says, righty is tighty.

If you attack a broken fastener

with a conventional right-hand bit,

as a first step for using

some kind of extractor set,

the turning motion of the bit

will naturally drive the fastener

further into the work piece,

lodging it more securely than ever.

This is the opposite of the desired effect,

and rarely successful.

A left-hand bit spins in the loosey direction.

The left-hand bit is trying

to loosen your stuck fastener

from the very first moment

you apply the drill.

This is the desired effect,

and nearly always successful.

Chuck Moore, an Oklahoma gearhead

and my first Ducati tutor,

saved my life one day

by removing a broken brass jet

from a fragile pot metal carburetor

in mere seconds with just a touch of the drill,

a dramatic demonstration of the genius

and absolute necessity of left-hand drill bits.

I was at first amazed to learn that very few

professional mechanics are even aware

that left-hand drill bits exist,

and that right-hand bits jam

rather than free stuck fasteners,

but then i learned that hydraulic forks

had been upside-down for decades,

and worried about that instead.

Of course, Dennis Etcheverry removes bolts

with his arc welder,

a thing which must been seen to be believed.