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WANTED: Anyone here located near Atlanta, GA, or surrounding area?

Paul Cataldo

Stainless
Joined
Dec 9, 2004
Location
Atlanta, GA
Wasn't sure where else to post this guys. I am a youmg beginner machinist with a limited home shop which is currently mostly in a public storage building as we speak. I was wondering if anyone here might be located within a reasonable driving distance of Atlanta, GA, and might be willing to help me out with a small, fairly easy project? All I've got is basically a broken off bolt in a small cast iron casting, which needs to be repaired. I'm thinking clamp it up on the table of a knee mill and drill it out would probably do fine. Just need some help from a fellow forum member if anyone is willing?
I'm not looking for anything free so if you need compensation, that is understandable.
Was hoping to find someone who loves working in the shop as much as I do, as opposed to this being more like that of a straight up business transaction, if you know what I mean. Please PM me if you are willing to help out. Thanks so much guys.
 
Try a left hand drill bit running in the proper rotation.. If the stud is not seized or bottomed in a blind hole, it may unscrew.. Just be sure to get in the center of the stud with the drill..Best to mill the broken stud flat first then center punch ...
Ramsay 1:)
 
Wasn't sure where else to post this guys. I am a youmg beginner machinist with a limited home shop which is currently mostly in a public storage building as we speak. I was wondering if anyone here might be located within a reasonable driving distance of Atlanta, GA, and might be willing to help me out with a small, fairly easy project? All I've got is basically a broken off bolt in a small cast iron casting, which needs to be repaired. I'm thinking clamp it up on the table of a knee mill and drill it out would probably do fine. Just need some help from a fellow forum member if anyone is willing?
I'm not looking for anything free so if you need compensation, that is understandable.
Was hoping to find someone who loves working in the shop as much as I do, as opposed to this being more like that of a straight up business transaction, if you know what I mean. Please PM me if you are willing to help out. Thanks so much guys.

You don't need a Machinist to even cross the road or spend a dime for that. We are the ones as don't often break shit, anyway.

Ask anyone who has EVER worked on agricultural, lawn care equipment, or any sort of motor vehicle, older, rattier, and rustier the equipment the better. The older balder, greyer and crankier the Pilgrim, the better.

Dealing with broken s**t is always part of their package. DAMHIKT.

Or just read more ???
 
Yes Sir Mr Thermite,
I totally understand the necessary procedure to do this. I actually have managed to cleanly remove two of the three broken studs already, via cordless drill, cobalt bits, and an EZ Out.
However, this third and final stud is the problematic one. It is most definitely going to require a knee mill to do the job properly, so hence my plea for help here in this thread. I just don't have an operational mill at this time, and could really use someone's help.
In years past, I would get all sorts of guys here on this forum who were willing to help, but not too many bites thus far, so at this point, I would even be willing to drive a considerable distance, possibly Alabama, TN, or anywhere in GA, if anyone is out there reading this thread.
I thank you guys so much for even your considerations here. Really, I do appreciate it guys. Much thanks to you too as well thermite!
 
Yes Sir Mr Thermite,
I totally understand the necessary procedure to do this. I actually have managed to cleanly remove two of the three broken studs already, via cordless drill, cobalt bits, and an EZ Out.
However, this third and final stud is the problematic one. It is most definitely going to require a knee mill to do the job properly, so hence my plea for help here in this thread. I just don't have an operational mill at this time, and could really use someone's help.
In years past, I would get all sorts of guys here on this forum who were willing to help, but not too many bites thus far, so at this point, I would even be willing to drive a considerable distance, possibly Alabama, TN, or anywhere in GA, if anyone is out there reading this thread.
I thank you guys so much for even your considerations here. Really, I do appreciate it guys. Much thanks to you too as well thermite!

There are ALWAYS some busted-off ones as are harder than others. Sometimes one even needs help from heat or corrosive chemicals, not penetrating oils.

No need of a "knee mill". Your best chance of success actually comes from those who would not know a knee mill from a drill press, arbour press, or a baker's bread mixer, and JF had to git 'er DONE NOW before a thunderstorm took their wheat crop.

Nothing a knee mlll NEEDS to do that a hand power drill cannot. The busted bolt need not be plunge-milled dead-nuts on-center and clear out to the thread roots.

Drill undersized, weaken its grip. Enlarge. Try again. Impinge upon the female threads a tad at one side? Not a show-stopper.

Eventually, the remains are so thin, one side if not all sides, that one can "peel" what has become but a thin coil or 'cee' shaped memory of its old male threads right-TF out of the mated female threads with a stylus if need be.

No mill or mill-hand required. Basic cheap tools, patience and determination, rather.
 
What size is the stuck fastener?

Same technique just described has worked from Foredom handpiece on 2-56 to inch and a quarter on ATW radial, and a short ton of 6-32.

It scales well if you have a "watchmaker's" 8X eye-loupe, no-squint spring headband and a good span of drill sizes at the lower end. Safety glasses over Mark One Eyeball for 1/4"-20, 1/2"-13, and up.
 
Ok guys, sorry I've had limited time to respond. Here's the deal.
5/16-18 x 1" long broken off stud inside the static jaw casting of a Wilton vise.
Now, as of late this afternoon, you can dadd to that a broken off EZ out that is now the biggest problem I'm trying to deal with.
After successfully removing the other broken studs, I suppose my cheap EZ out finally gave out and snapped.
Anyhow, Mr Thermite, maybe you don't find a mill as a huge help in a situation like this, but I sure do find it easier to clamp this down nice amd solid, and then center over the hole to be bored out, then merely raise and lower the Z axis to swap bits as needed , etc etc to get this thing drilled out etc.
I know there's always more than 20 ways to skin a cat, but I'm cashed out here with hand drilling etc. Its time to bring in some bigger guns on this thing.
Hoping a drill made for hardened steel will bore through this cheap Irwin EZ out.
Hell, even if this were not containing rhe broken off EZ-out, I'd still find it MUCH easier in a mill. Any help appreciated guys.
 
Re post this in the General sub forum. You will get more eyes on your request and probably more help. Pictures, even if not great will help immensely.
 
Hey thanks henry. I had been away for a while, but was always a long time member years back. Things were a little more laid back around here back then and I've noticed a bit more strict policy in some forums lately, so I was a bit hesitant to post at all. I appreciate your encouragement.
 
It sounded easy until you said there was a broken e-z out in the way....Get a good sharp punch and start chipping the broken piece out, once it is out get a torch and heat broken bolt cherry red, while its cooling spray some Kroil, or at least PB on it, try again with e-z out.
 
I'm in South Carolina, Spartanburg if you want to make the trip. About 200 hundred miles. I've got the aforementioned equipment/shop and years of plant work doing just those types of repairs. (Lots of ham fisted operators, myself included). If you don't find anyone local I'll be glad to give you a hand
 
Man Hodge that may be a bit far for me to drive, but I gotta say thank you Sir! It's nixe to hear someone, anyone chime in to help a fellow member out! I am occasionally up that way, and if I dont find help by then, I will surely look you up.
 
Paul, I will tell you an old trick that has ALWAYS worked for me.
Depending on the size of the bolt that has broken off, take a drill bit and drill a hole down the center of the broken bolt, about half of the size of the original bolt size.
Get yourself if you don't already have one, a basic THREADING TAP that is a little larger than the hole you drilled.
GRIND that tap off on (4) sides, making it SQUARE, with (4) sharp sides on the corners of the square.
THAN, use a hammer and lightly TAP it into the hole you drilled. Since it already most likely has a SQUARE head on the tap, use a Cresent wrench, or whatever you can adapt to it to turn out the broken thread. The hardened TAP will give you a four point grip on the inside of that threaded rod. Lubricate it well if Necessary with WD40, etc., and turn it out of the hole.
IF applicable, HEAT the area red hot (ONLY ON REALLY BAD SITUATIONS) with Oxy Acetylene, etc. I have NEVER had this method fail.
 
static jaw casting of a Wilton vise.
.
.
Anyhow, Mr Thermite, maybe you don't find a mill as a huge help in a situation like this, but I sure do find it easier to clamp this down nice amd solid, and then center over the hole to be bored out, then merely raise and lower the Z axis to swap bits as needed , etc etc to get this thing drilled out etc.
Well just DO that then, and let the grownups get back to their usual naps.

You are in a storage container? Tiny 5/16" fastener? All you ever actually NEEDED was a Milwaukee M12 cordless drill or equivalent, some other make. Oh.. and drills and the skill to drill a proper HOLE with them.

You may not yet have connected the dots, but an Ez-out is what its name implies.
It can only remove the "easy" ones.

Sheared-off bolts or studs with no place to grip, but whose threads are NOT seized, jammed, upset, corroded - whatever - but present only the normal thread drag of an undamaged and healthy fastener easily turned by hand or with the most modest of "running up", not torquing-tight wrenching effort.

Look at the cross-section of the broken end of the EZ-out. MUCH smaller than the bolt.

And torque applied back when it was initially broken was enough to break the far larger bolt. You've not been able to move it. That EZ-Out never had even the survival chance of a paper airplane flight-planned at VFR levels across all of Hell and half of Syria.

Now you need a small tip on the right sort of torch to anneal it, if not burn it out.

About an ounce and a half of common sense would do you better than any milling machine I've ever owned, run for a crust, or even read about in the funny papers.

If you make a problem out of a solution, a problem you certainly will have.
 
Sounds good, sent ya a pm with #. By the way Bill was spot on about removal.

Thanks,

More than a few times, after drilling it near to foil, a through-hole wants a jewelers saw cut run down it to make it easier to peel. Damage to the female threads in the host metal body of little consequence.

Blind hole may need a prick-punch mark, right on the average of the line of thread engagement. A small hole drilled then also splits the inner debris, and leaves a still usually-inconsequential groove down the parent body's hole.

BFD. Locktite exists, after all.

:)
 
Man Hodge that may be a bit far for me to drive, but I gotta say thank you Sir! It's nixe to hear someone, anyone chime in to help a fellow member out! I am occasionally up that way, and if I dont find help by then, I will surely look you up.

OY! If you really are in huge Hotlanta and there is no one as has done this a hundred times arredy? City had to have been nuked fat by Rocketman when no one was looking!

:)
 
Paul, I will tell you an old trick that has ALWAYS worked for me.
Depending on the size of the bolt that has broken off, take a drill bit and drill a hole down the center of the broken bolt, about half of the size of the original bolt size.
Get yourself if you don't already have one, a basic THREADING TAP that is a little larger than the hole you drilled.
GRIND that tap off on (4) sides, making it SQUARE, with (4) sharp sides on the corners of the square.
THAN, use a hammer and lightly TAP it into the hole you drilled. Since it already most likely has a SQUARE head on the tap, use a Cresent wrench, or whatever you can adapt to it to turn out the broken thread. The hardened TAP will give you a four point grip on the inside of that threaded rod.

If a store-bought Ez-Out broke off, why would the home-made Ez-Out you just built be any stronger?

Only Crescent wrench small enough to not snap-off yesterday afternoon any tap as would fit a 5/16" bolt is, last time I looked, a tinker-toy hanging off a set of car keys.

We are talking next common size up from tear-on-the-dotted line 1/4"-20 folks.
 








 
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