Craftsman  Nut Cracker

Buy quality tools for stuff like this unless you need some Chinese junk that only works a couple of times. I have one at home and at work.

this nut cracker is strong. It doesn't always work the way you think it will and sometimes its hard to fit it where you need it but if you can reach it this can split it. Bolt out is usually a better option though

after using i couple of cheap brands that busted and fell apart, my father told me to try this. cant thank him enough it worked wonderful. i used it to bust loose a rusted nut off the top of a shock on my truck. It helps if the user has a little patience, and use a 1/2 wrench with it. Some of the other reviews say that its to big, i think if it was any smaller it would lose some durability.

Although this device appears heavier duty than my 40 year old nut splitter, its design leaves something to be desired. My old one had a floating head in a socket, and it adjusted well to the flat side of a nut. This new one has a fixed head with a rounded tip, and because it rotates with the device's bolt rather than staying still like it should, it tends to slide off the nut. It may work better on large nuts that more totally fill the pocket, but If I can find a better design out there, I will be taking this one back to Sears. To work more effectively, one would have to drill an indentation in the nut for the rounded-point head to seat into, so it would stay there long enough for the cutter to start digging in on the opposite side and split the nut. The reversible cutter could be an advantage, but turning it upside down did not help when the rounded head kept rolling off the opposite flat.

While painting the outside of my house, I had taken down a Dish Network receiving dish.  I planned to refurbish it by cleaning it, replacing rusted hardware, and possibly painting it.  I was careful to mark the position of all the variable mounting hardware, so I could remount it without all the aggravation of re-aiming it. 

It had been up for 15-16 years and some of the hardware mounting bolts and nuts were severely rusted.  After soaking them for several days in a solution to loosen them, I still could not remove some of them.  When they moved a half-turn, they would rotate the whole screw also, and the flat carraige bolt style screw heads didn't allow me to hold the screw while trying to turn the nut.   

So I purchased the Nut Cracker from Sears to be able to remove the rusted nuts. 

It is well made and plenty sturdy enough to perform the job of cutting rusted nuts from their screws.   It works by positioning a fixed cold chisel type cutter on the back of the nut, then racheting a rounded point into the front of the nut with enough pressure to crack it.  The mechanism was well made and obviously could take lots of abuse.   

The nuts on my dish were of the correct diameter to be able to use the tool, but were fairly thin.  When I tried to use the Nut Cracker, the rounded point couldn't catch enough of the vertical side of the nut to force the split to happen.  The vertical fixed cutter edge was plenty sturdy and would stay in place, but as the rounded point was driven into the opposite side, it just rode up and over the top of the nut. 

There's no doubt in my mind that this tool will do the job on nuts that are of sufficient height for it to catch while it is being racheted in.  But in my case, for this initial use, it was unable to do so.  However, I would still recomend the tool.  I'm sure it will come in handy..

I've had mine for a couple years now and it's saved me a lot of trouble more times than I can remember. It is a bit large, but you can get it into most places if you work at it and for the price you just can't beat it.

This is simple to use and does a good job if the nut is easy to access and there's plenty of space between the nut and whatever it's holding together.  It's not designed for tight spaces and is hard to use if the nut is flush with a flat surface. 

I agree with the first review! This product is to large for most auto applications. If it were on the slimmer side withuot loosing the strenght .I believe the product would be easier to get into those smaller places

I used this to attempt to remove a nut from a ball joint on my car. The end of the bolt that you tighten just rounded and disentegrated before the blade portion could cut the nut. I never did get the nut off, had to hacksaw the thing.