Loctite Red?

S

SwampYankee

New member
I disassembled my S&W 686 to pop in a hammer shim and polish the rebound spring unit and one of the screws was covered in what I assume is red loctite. When I removed the set screw from the novak sights on my S&W 4053 this morning I found the same red loctite. I went to the loctite web site and it says that red loctite requires heating to 500 °F for removal. Clearly this was not required. Is this something other than red loctite? An S&W specific product? I'm going to use blue loctite in its place.
 
Some cleaning solvents will melt red loctite.
If it is loctite and gets melted, make sure all of it is cleaned out or it could run into other parts and reform, fastening parts together that weren't intended to be.
 
That is not red LocTite, it's a polymer sealer. You said you used a screwdriver. We use red LocTite to permanently install screws and to install studs and pivots that you never would expect to need removed. Works, too.
 
Thanks for the info, but what is a polymer sealer? How is it different from Loctite? And why would S&W put it on only 1 out of 3 side plate screws?
 
Polymer sealers work kind of like a drop of teflon paint. The idea is to put a drop of the stuff on the threads, and it dries firm and pliable, but dry. Kind of like Teflon tape in use, keeps the threads from working loose and the surfaces don't gall and stick together. After the screws are installed, it will not adhere to the metal of the screw holes, but dampens vibration and wedges tight enough to keep the screws from coming loose, but is compressible enough that it deforms and fills the hole tightly when the screw is screwed in.

Thread lockers like LocTite are kind of neat compounds, chemically. They are anaerobic cure, meaning they harden when no air is available rather than drying a solvent out into the air. So put it on screw threads and it just sits there, does nothing, but put the screw into a threaded hole and they run out of oxygen and crystallize. One they begin to crystallize it polymerizes any of the material it is in contact with, so any threadlocker at the end of the hole will crystallize also. Like I said, neat stuff.
 
you would do well to think of polymer sealer as the nylon insert in a lock nut, not teflon tape. Teflon tape is applied to tapered threads (pipe thread) and acts as a lubricant to aid in tightening. Its the taper that makes pipe thread seal, not tape. The reason to apply polymer sealer to only one screw is that that is all it needs. They apply it just to ensure the gun holds together, not to keep you from taking it appart.
 
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