Grading Help? Broken mower blade bolt

[proconnor]

we drilled it out and used an easy out and it would not budge with a 1/2 impact driver. we are going to bore it out with a milling machine and take it from there

 

[leonz]

we drilled it out and used an easy out and it would not budge with a 1/2 impact driver. we are going to bore it out with a milling machine and take it from there

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If you have not done it already try assaulting it with a carbon dixide extinguisher-outside in the open air of course to shrink the broken stud first and then try to extract it.




leonz

 

[jesseb3@att.net]

Leonz,

It's in the hands of the machinist now, but that's a "cool" idea. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

We use freeze spray at work to troubleshoot electronics. Wish I would've thought of that, just to try it! With the nozzle, you could direct the spray right into the hole that was drilled into it. Much safer, and cheaper than a fire extinguisher too. And wow does it get cold!

Jesse

 

[jesseb3@att.net]

Well, this has been resolved. My buddy "proconnor", who also posted to this thread, got a machinist involved. After the easy out failed to extract the bolt, the machinist milled out the bolt as close to the threads as possible.

I guess he crumpled in some of the remaining bolt, and then used a tap to to remove the rest of the thread that was left. From what I understand, it's good as new - no damage to the original shaft threads.

The machinist, who builds custom hydraulic cylinders for equipment, says that he recommends pure silicon caulk for bolts. I'm going to remove my blade bolts, and make sure that I coat them so that I don't run into issues.

I found that the shaft would have cost $110 alone, not including the effort to rebuild the gearbox.

The machinist was a friend of proconnor's, so he got away with a cheap repair.

Jesse

 

[savageactor7]

Well that's good to hear for you that everything is fixed.

 

[dodge man]

Yeah, my experience with easy outs isn't good. If a bolt is broken off due to some kind of impact breaking it off, they work great. Most of the time bolt is broken off because it's rusted in place. In this case, the easy out usually ends up broken in the hole.

 

[have_blue]

we drilled it out and used an easy out and it would not budge with a 1/2 impact driver. we are going to bore it out with a milling machine and take it from there

I've had good luck simply drilling out the bolt with a left hand drill. When most of the core is drilled out, it relieves some of the pressure, and the heat and vibration from the drill usually causes the bolt to back out on its own. A little liquid wrench-type stuff also helps a little. If the bolt is grade 8, sometimes you can spot drill a dimple on the side of the bolt and tap it CCW with a hammer and center punch.