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Saw a neat trick, on youtube...
- Thread starter DIYDAVE
- Start date
Midnightmoon
Senior Member
I like the allen bolt line up trick but the time it takes to drill the right size bolt I've allready gotten the broken volt out using the right size center punch. using easy outs or taps with adjustable wrench is for the birds. Get yourself the special sockets ment for the tap/easyout. If the broken bolts I had to get out looked that clean and spin out easy like those I'd be a happy man. Flush broken bolts and ones 1/8" in i grab the welder weld a nut to it and bingo out in no time even rusted i rarely pick up a drill and easyout
BigWrench55
Senior Member
Same here... but if you have the time beforehand you can make some and have a handy weapon in your arsenal.
Midnightmoon
Senior Member
I'll probably make some tomorrow alot of goverment work going on this time of year
heymccall
Senior Member
Best way to extract flush or below flush broken bolts, up to 1/2" or so, is to use an ESAB All State Stud Plus rod for the build out, followed by a nut welded in with 7018.
If you've never used the All State Stud Plus rods, you clearly haven't had a fleet of big block Econolines.
https://www.esabna.com/us/en/produc...al-removal-electrodes/all-state-stud-plus.cfm
If you've never used the All State Stud Plus rods, you clearly haven't had a fleet of big block Econolines.
https://www.esabna.com/us/en/produc...al-removal-electrodes/all-state-stud-plus.cfm
Flat Thunder Channel
Senior Member
The video was a little on the novel side with how clean and easily accessible the pieces were. I didn't make it all the way through, but I do like the idea. The threaded in bolt drill guide might get used in my shop someday. Nice!
On another note I don't think I ever used a spring loaded centering tool for hinges or knew they existed. Mind blown. Not so much a carpenter, but I pretend to be sometimes.
On another note I don't think I ever used a spring loaded centering tool for hinges or knew they existed. Mind blown. Not so much a carpenter, but I pretend to be sometimes.
Ford pioneered the broken off bolt in the block right at the time they come up with the manifold exhaust leak.
colson04
Senior Member
Darn right they did. 5.4L and 6.8L are horrible for broken exhaust studs.
I watched a young guy a few years ago struggle to get 6 broken flush grade eight bolts drilled to use an extractor. This was the wing hold down bolts for the sidewings which are famous for breaking off......usually flush or just below flush. He screwed around for over an hour trying to drill one bolt, and after pretty much giving up, came over to me and asked what he should do. I was in the middle of another project so I told him to take a break (which is going to the local convenience store) and I would look at it when he got back. As soon as he left, I took my die grinder with a cutoff wheel , centered the wheel over a different broken bolt...........pushed it into the bolt about 1/4 inch and backed it out with a screwdriver. I removed all of the other 5 broken bolts in less than 5 minutes but left the one he was working on. When he returned, he couldn't believe that I had got the other bolts out so quick and asked what I did. I showed him exactly how to do that with the following statement..........." Son, you have to think outside the box in this business." Before he left the business less than a year ago........He told me that he had learned more working around me than he had ever with anyone else. Too bad he left, he was a great kid that could have gone a long ways in this business with the right lead.
JPV
Senior Member
I like the idea of the bolts drilled for centering, can think of a few places I could have used that. What I really would have liked to see is his technique for removing bolt with a busted easy out in it, the most miss-named tool ever invented...
John C.
Senior Member
Try that with a 1" grade eight bolt broken off in the bottom hole of a K link D8K blade. Or how about a broken roller bolt in PC120 track frame. Once you learn the tricks on those you can move on to broken exhaust manifold studs in Cat 3412 heads while still in the truck.
Midnightmoon
Senior Member
I only use easy outs as comic relief. I look at them in my tool box and chuckle a little. Easy out of luck. most times the broken bolt wins
The problem is an easy out pretty much works only on a freshly snapped bolt that isn’t jammed in the threads.
Wheras our broken bolts in the heavy equipment world are not broken in ideal conditions. They are broken long ago, corroded, the bolt has been hammered in the threads under the conditions that caused the broken bolt, etc.
Which is why for us the welder is usually the most successful extractor, bar none.
My favorite is the long pair of bolts in an alligator master link on a big dozer, they usually pop just at the last thread, several inches down in the hole, and are harder than the flippin hubs of hell. Some manufacturers make the holes blind, which is ever so helpful. Makes it even better when the bastid that was there before you welded the link halves together.
John C.
Senior Member
I'm with Vetech63 and use the torch. I drill a small hole through the bolt, clean the torch tip and slit across the bolt. I have a carbide burr for grinding the broken end of the bolt smooth so the drill bit will bite. Blind holes are a little tougher.
mitch504
Senior Member
I use ezy-outs a lot, and find they work great...
For broken brass fittings.
For broken brass fittings.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Cat 3406 A, B, and some E models---The 6 1/2"x 3/8" long thermostat housing bolts there are three passing through a aluminum stat housing--totally froze/corroded .
I have on several occasions had to remove those-no matter how much heat or any other popular quick removal method-It's center punch and free hand drill at least 2 1/2" to remove
the front stat housing section. Then continue the same way on the rear section.
I win the fur lined **** pot-I have free hand drilled dead center the entire length of all three bolts finishing with a 5/16 drill leaving a paper thin shell of a bolt . Bionic Eye.
I always got handed the job of removing broken bolts. It's a part of being a mechanic not a technician.
I have on several occasions had to remove those-no matter how much heat or any other popular quick removal method-It's center punch and free hand drill at least 2 1/2" to remove
the front stat housing section. Then continue the same way on the rear section.
I win the fur lined **** pot-I have free hand drilled dead center the entire length of all three bolts finishing with a 5/16 drill leaving a paper thin shell of a bolt . Bionic Eye.
I always got handed the job of removing broken bolts. It's a part of being a mechanic not a technician.
two of ours will not make any attempt to get a broken one out they call for our welder to do it. Last one he dragged the big welder up to the way other side of the shop, reached down, and found out the broken bolt was loose and screwed right out he threw it at the feet of the technician and said “I got the f***er out for ya it was reeeeaaaalllll hard”
I make no claim to bring a human drill press but I take pride in having the skill of being able to get my own broken bolts out. It’s a basic skill of our profession.