Have you sucessfully extracted a broken bolt?

[White 6]

Great vid!

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I think the problem is the s.t. screws were 3/8ths steel in an aluminum trailer that has been subjected to road salt for a quarter century. I suspect electrolysis corrosion seized the screws and they just weren't letting go.

Aluminum is a soft metal that adheres to steel screws and bolts.
Same thing when taping holes in aluminum. Easy to bind up and break the tap off if you don't go slow and use the correct taping oil made for aluminum. ...

The proper tap for aluminum is the key.
Spiral machine taps are the way to go.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I think the problem is the s.t. screws were 3/8ths steel in an aluminum trailer that has been subjected to road salt for a quarter century. I suspect electrolysis corrosion seized the screws and they just weren't letting go.

Aluminum is a soft metal that adheres to steel screws and bolts.
Same thing when taping holes in aluminum. Easy to bind up and break the tap off if you don't go slow and use the correct taping oil made for aluminum. ...

The proper tap for aluminum is the key.
Spiral machine taps are the way to go.
View attachment 400001View attachment 400001View attachment 400001

I guess I had to post it three times so my message was clear..

 

[Missourian]

I worked my whole life in heavy industry and the very best penetrating oil I found for loosing stuck bolts and rust frozen metal parts is from a company called Kano which sells Silikroil penetrating oil.
Silikroil has silicone in it and penetrates down to one millionth of an inch.
There has been soo many times I couldn't break a part loose or free a stuck bolt and just sprayed it with Silikroil, took a 15 minute break, came back and the part or bolt easily broke free.
It's not sold in stores. But you can buy direct from the company and Amazon also sells cans of it. ...

Thanks. I'm a big fan of penetrating oil. This Deep Creep is the best I've found so far that I can buy locally. Started spraying these three days ago. I'll definitely give that Silikroil a try.

 

[Missourian]

Extractors for the most part are useless.
If I had to guess I'd say the success rate would be in the low end of 10%

Need some truth in advertising...

"Maybe extractors...but probably not."

Available at a store near you. Limited taillight warranty (when your taillights disappear around the corner...so does the warranty).

No returns.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I have to say this: Phillip is an asshole, and his screwdriver sucks.

Ironically, this set of screw extractors, a cheap Chinese set that I ordered from Amazon, was being delivered to my home, about the same time I was on a project, fighting with a result of Phillip's dumbassery.

The design seems to imply that you are supposed to use this end as a drill bit, to drill a hole in the screw…

And then use this end, to extract the screw…

I could never get the “drill bit” end to work very well. For some reason, it never made a clean hole, that the other end could grip into.

I got much better results after I gave up on using the “drill bit” end of the extractor, and started using a real drill bit for that step. With a cleaner hole, drilled by a real drill bit, these extractors work very well.

 

[Hossfly]

Extractors for the most part are useless.
If I had to guess I'd say the success rate would be in the low end of 10%

Need some truth in advertising...

"Maybe extractors...but probably not."

Available at a store near you. Limited taillight warrantee (when your taillights disappear around the corner...so does the warrantee).

No returns.

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"

 

[Bob Blaylock]

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"

Fortunately, I'm an electrician.

This means that I am qualified to use other tools than just a hammer.

 

[eagle1462010]

MSN Deal

Best dang stuff to use. They buy it by 50 gallon drums at work.........it WORKS MIRACLES.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

Be sure to use an anti-sieze on the threads when you put the bolts back. After that it shouldn't happen again.

Over on the Corvette forum, people are always breaking bolts off.

Same with aircraft...but worse.
Break off a bolt in a Continental IO-550 and you practically need the FAA's and NTSB's blessing to repair it.

 

[eagle1462010]

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"

Fortunately, I'm an electrician.

This means that I am qualified to use other tools than just a hammer.

What is the shrink of those parallel offsets with 3 and a 1/2 inch center spacing..........

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I have to say this: Phillip is an asshole, and his screwdriver sucks.

Ironically, this set of screw extractors, a cheap Chinese set that I ordered from Amazon, was being delivered to my home, about the same time I was on a project, fighting with a result of Phillip's dumbassery.

View attachment 400003

The design seems to imply that you are supposed to use this end as a drill bit, to drill a hole in the screw…

View attachment 400004

And then use this end, to extract the screw…

View attachment 400005

I could never get the “drill bit” end to work very well. For some reason, it never made a clean hole, that the other end could grip into.

I got much better results after I gave up on using the “drill bit” end of the extractor, and started using a real drill bit for that step. With a cleaner hole, drilled by a real drill bit, these extractors work very well.

For simple broken bolts we'd use left hand drill bits.
Sometimes the simple act of removing the tension by removing material in the screw/bolt center is enough.
I will say I've burnt out a shit ton of taps and drill bits that have broken off using a tap burner/EDM machine.

 

[eagle1462010]

Screw Extractor Size and Drill Table Chart

Table of screw bolt extractor sizes and pre-drill size required to use screw extractor easy-out.

www.engineersedge.com

Use the right sized drill bit.........penetrating oil to excess........and step up the drill bit sizes til you get to the right size.

 

[Yarddog]

I dont think I have. I did break an extractor off today. After that there was no way I was going to try to drill though it.

The rest I just drilled out. They'd been in there holes for 26 years...steel self tapping screws in aluminum crossmembers...so I expected sheering.

As an aside, I have to say...Deep Creep penetrating spray from Seafoam did a great job. Over 2/3rds were sucessfully removed intact.

But the extractors were a huge fail...both Irwin and Warrior brand. Not a single extraction...one extactor stripped and the other broke.

Is there a technique I'm failing to grasp?

Ive gotten lucky before spinning one out with a left handed drill bit after using some penetrating oil.

On a larger size bolt, Ive actually welded another bolt to the broken one but you have to grind down the end so there is a place to put the weld bead...... taking care not to put a weld on the surrounding metal

 

[Likkmee]

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"

Fortunately, I'm an electrician.

This means that I am qualified to use other tools than just a hammer.

Mostly a sawzall making the end result "the painters problem"

 

[Sunni Man]

Ive gotten lucky before spinning one out with a left handed drill bit after using some penetrating oil.

Anyone that frequently has to extract broken bolts needs to buy a set of left handed drill bits. Many times, after spraying the broken bolt with penetrating oil, I've had the bolt come out while drilling the hole needed for the extractor. ...

 

[Moonglow]

I usually just go into a cursing tirade

 

[Sunni Man]

I have to say this: Phillip is an asshole, and his screwdriver sucks.

Many people don't realize there are several types and sizes of Phillip's head screws. For best results you must match the correct Phillips screwdriver with the screw head. ...

 

[Sunni Man]

MSN Deal

Best dang stuff to use. They buy it by 50 gallon drums at work.........it WORKS MIRACLES.

I been a Kroil oil fan for 30 years. I've had big industrial parts I couldn't break apart for repair due to rust with a big hammer. I just sprayed the part with Kroil, let it set for 20 minutes, and the part easily came lose.
My favorite product is the Silikroil because it contains silicone. ...

 

[Sunni Man]

One time I had several 1 inch bolts I couldn't break loose from a large piece of machinery. Even with a 6 foot cheater pipe on a breaker bar they wouldn't budge.
So I sprayed them down with Kroil with silicone penetrating oil and went to lunch. When I came back from lunch the bolts came out smooth as silk without using the cheater pipe. ...