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Wayne
08-12-2004 20:17:49
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Re: Stuck bolts, help! in reply to Fred, 08-12-2004 19:39:39
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Sounds to me like you need to get an exothermic cutter/slice torch and burn them out. With a bolt that big it wouldn't be all that hard to do. The one we've got is made by Thermal Arc. It's really easy to use, and it's "the only way" to remove a stuck pin, etc. It's a fairly simple rig in that all you need is the holder, cutting rods, oxygen to feed it, and a battery hooked to a striking plate to get it started. You can hook a welder up to it which eliminates the need for a striking bar, as well as giving it a little more power, but it's not a required thing to do. The nice thing about this setup is that unlike a torch which blows back at you unmercifully, it is a dream to use. It's amazingly simple to operate and control the cutter, you simply put the cutting rod in the center of the pin, start the oxygen, strike the arc, and slowly feed it through. When your ready to stop cutting turn the oxygen off and it stops cutting. The rods come in various lengths, like 20" and up so something fairely lengthy isn't hard at all to go completely through with just a couple of rods. Too they can be ordered shielded so they won't arc off the side of a hole, making cutting something out in close quarters/down in a hole easier. It will blow back some if your going into a pin vertically, but if you can get the part your after into a horizontal position you get very little blowback. Instead the molten metal simply runs out the end of the hole. Once you get a hole burned through the middle of the pin 99.999% of the time it will come right out. The rest of the times you might have to burn a little more out, or burn it out completely, but I can guarantee you it will come out. Another nice thing about these cutters is that they will cut just about anything, be it cast iron, glass, concrete, etc etc etc., so you'll probably find other uses for it too. The drawback is the cutting rods are a bit expensive, but if say a $100 box of rods saves a $1000 piece then your money ahead. We've used ours many times getting out large broke bolts, pins, etc in the cranes we work on, and it has never let us down. I can't even begin to guess how much time and money it has saved over the years buy turning what is usually a major nightmare into a sweet dream. Hope this helps, Good luck.
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