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I need to completely disassemble an eratic Edison Opera governor to polish the flange and balance the springs, but I am stymied by all of the tiny screws that are frozen - every last one of them. I have precision screwdrivers with large handles, but I am afraid of snapping off the screw heads if I get too aggressive. There is no rust or corrosion, so I wonder if the brass has shrunk? I soaked the governor for a week in a bottle of Liquid Wrench penetrating oil. No help. After degreasing it in a solvent, I baked the governor at 500 degrees in the oven. No help. I am afraid of applying a torch for fear of de-tempering the steel springs. The only thing I haven't tried yet is freezing the thing. Which expands or contracts more, brass or steel?

Does anyone have additional ideas to try?

Generally speaking, brass moves more with temperature than steel.


Have you tried gently tightening the screws ?

If a fastener won't loosen, sometimes a slight "tighten" will break them loose.


You are quite right not wanting to twist anything off...


I would try giving it a night in the deep-freeze...


Good luck...

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PB Blaster does work very well, along with soaking parts in kerosene. Another thing to try is to clamp vise grips to the blade or your screwdriver - then exert pressure down on the handle while gently applying force with the vise grips... the lateral force sometimes is enough to break things loose.

Another good product is Kroil. I use it w/o fail on frozen/rusted gun screws as well as machines. A little bit goes a long way.

According to some studies that I read about what works best as a penetrating solution turned out to be home made. It scored better that nay commercially available penetrant and is simply a half and half mixture of automatic transmission fluid and acetone. It was pretty interesting to say the least!

I want to bring closure to this thread by reporting that I finally was able to loosen the screws on the Edison Opera governor. I bought a spray can of PB Blaster and squirted some into a narrow jar until I had enough to immerse the governor for an extended soak -- for a month. I had gingerly tried to budge the screws every now and then with no success. After a month, the brass and the PB Blaster had begun to turn a slight green in color. It was time to do something. I gritted my teeth and gave a screw a harder twist than before. Snap! After a brief panic, I realized the screw had broke free as intended, rather than the head breaking off. There were no signs of rust or corrosion on the screw or brass parts. Encouraged, I attacked the other screws. Every one of them released with the same unnerving snap. I have disassembled a lot governors, but none were ever so stubborn as this.

Wow, you soaked them for a month? That's a true act of patience. DeeDee said I had a little patience at forty but nearly none at sixty. Jerry

Jerry, it was nothing really. It was the poor customer that had to be patient! I sure didn't want to bust any screws on his machine.