Reached the limit of my brompton..

[cwah]

After thousand of miles, my Brompton finally reached its limits.

The front bloc bolt snapped and the 14kg battery bag was hanging with only 1 bolt remaining. I decided to completely remove the bag and attach it on my rear rack.

It was the most awful journey back home I ever had. 4 miles with winds and uphills (I had to walk when I reach uphills)... I'm now sweating and tired.

Brought my bike to a bike shop and they told me there is nothing they can do because half of the bolt is inside the thread.. I have to bring it to a car repair...

Damn, these bicycle shop have never been useful for anything...


Going to use my drill and re-thread the snapped bolt... Fingers crossed.

 

[eddieo]

bad luck...aint no fun getting stuck in this kinda weather. drill and tap it? what size bolt, there must be a way

 

[tillson]

After thousand of miles, my Brompton finally reached its limits.

The front bloc bolt snapped and the 14kg battery bag was hanging with only 1 bolt remaining. I decided to completely remove the bag and attach it on my rear rack.

It was the most awful journey back home I ever had. 4 miles with winds and uphills (I had to walk when I reach uphills)... I'm now sweating and tired.

Brought my bike to a bike shop and they told me there is nothing they can do because half of the bolt is inside the thread.. I have to bring it to a car repair...

Damn, these bicycle shop have never been useful for anything...


Going to use my drill and re-thread the snapped bolt... Fingers crossed.

Can you get the snapped bolt out with a stud extractor?

 

[RoadieRoger]

Before you start drilling CWAH are you familiar with Easyout Screw Extractors ? These come in a kit of 5 to cover a range of sizes ie diameters . If you are not , google `screw and bolt remover `. Scroll down to Screw Extractor/ Easyout / broken bolt removal - You Tube the 2min 12 sec demo . This starts with centre popping the hole , centre drilling to take the drill that matches the easy out , inserting the easyout and gently tapping it home and finally unscrewing it anti-clockwise to remove the sheared bolt . The alternative is to increase the drill diameter and if you are on centre , to pick the threads out if you are lucky . If you are fully` au fait `with the procedure perhaps other Forum Members could watch the procedure .

 

[mike killay]

CWAH,
be careful.
I am not sure I have understood your problem exactly, but when a bolt snaps leaving some of itself inside the hole, it may be that the threads have stretched and it will be difficult to turn the remains.
There are things called 'Stud Extractors' which have an anti clockwise thread. You drill a hole down the centre of the snapped off bolt, screw the extractor in backwards and it bites. As you continue turning, it unwinds the bolt. Not easy to use!

 

[mike killay]

Well, that told him!
We must have all crossed in the post!

 

[RoadieRoger]

Yes Mike, I must admit that when I used one the damn thing sheared off in the snapped bolt in the hole . My last drilling job was on the manifold stud on my Classic Suzuki Roadie .I drilled slightly off centre and opened up the hole with gradually increasing drill sizes and picked out some of the thread . The newly tapped hole was part stud and part cylinder barrel . It did the job though and the subsequent stainless steel stud has held .
Incidently today LIDL have a 20 piece Tap and Die Set for ISO Metric at £7.99 . I bought one several years ago and it is very handy .

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I've never successfully got a broken bolt out with one of those extracters. Each time I tried, the extracter broke, and then it's impossible to proceed because the extractor is hardened and can't be drilled. i think it's much safer to drill-out the broken bolt.

 

[cwah]

Using my hammer drill. Drilling the same hole since 45mn no big results. These bolt are so difficult to drill.

 

[patpatbut]

I've never successfully got a broken bolt out with one of those extracters. Each time I tried, the extracter broke, and then it's impossible to proceed because the extractor is hardened and can't be drilled. i think it's much safer to drill-out the broken bolt.

Hi dave

one of the M5 alan bolts is rounded and I want to get it out.

Can you tell me what is the best method of getting it out without damaging the thread?

Thanks
Pat

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Hi dave

one of the M5 alan bolts is rounded and I want to get it out.

Can you tell me what is the best method of getting it out without damaging the thread?

Thanks
Pat

If it's a normal allen bolt, you can usually grip the head with mole-grips to turn it. If the head goes down a counter-bore or is countersunk so that the head is flush with the surface, it's not so easy. In this case I usually hammer in a flat screwdriver that is a bit bigger than the hole, and then I turn it with an adjustable spanner on the flat bit just above the screw, or use mole-gripps on the handle. The hammering helps to loosen the thread/head.

If this doesn't work I drill off the head of the screw so that the parts can be separated. This leaves a length of the screw sticking out after separation, which can easily be scewed out with mole-grips.

 

[OldBob1]

Before we had Easyouts I use to drill a hole in the centre and tap the tang of a file into the hole with a hide hammer and un-screw anti-clockwise, infact had more success that way than easyouts!!!
Bob

 

[Geebee]

If it is a flush or low head, quite often using a Dremel with a cut off disc to cut a slot and then use a flat blade screwdriver will often work.

 

[Old_Dave]

The trouble with easy outs is that by their very nature they expand the stud/bolt that needs removing, as d8veh says... Drilling is normally a better method, but of course that has its own issues for the unwary.

There are many ways of skinning cats and removing broken studs but the best way depends on many things


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[flecc]

Before we had Easyouts I use to drill a hole in the centre and tap the tang of a file into the hole with a hide hammer and un-screw anti-clockwise, infact had more success that way than easyouts!!!
Bob

Ditto!

..........

 

[johnc461165]

How about some photos Cwah

 

[cwah]

Sorry guys, I was on a rush and was trying to drill it.

Tried first with a hammer drill and after 1 hour it didn't go very far.

Continued another hour with a standard mode, but didn't go too deep as it was dangerous.

Finally the thread are all expanded and even an M10 bolt wasn't big enough...


I decided to put some DP420 to glue everything in place... last chance.

Have to use my brompton tomorrow.


A bit too ashamed to send any picture because I did a big mess

 

[cwah]

Drill through steel is the toughest job I ever had. Didn't know it would be so difficult.

Drill through aluminium is like cutting butter compared to that.

 

[Old_Dave]

The quality / angle and material used to make the drill bit makes all the difference ... an old trick is to grind a suitable angle on a tiped masonry bit to drill very hard steels.

In short.. there's nothing like quality drill bits


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[cwah]

I had an 90 degree angle and HSS drill bit. I adjusted different speed but had the same result.

I've never been that inefficient when drilling. 2 hours drilling for failled thread. The hole is now so big only glue can save the game.

90 degree angle wasn't good? And is there any ready to purchase drill bit dedicated for hard steel?


For me, drilling a hole shouldn't take more than 5 mn. Otherwise there is a problem somewhere.