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Posted by the wizard on May 11, 2008, 3:55 pm
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> Got a call out yesterday to a mate with a stuck locking wheel nut stopping=
> him changing a flat tyre. Looks like the gorillas at the tyre fitting plac=
e
> he'd last been to had torqued everything up to several hundred foot lbs. T=
he
> first wheel nut key had just snapped in half trying to get it out and the
> =A325 replacement from Vauxhall was having no more luck. The AA had been
> round, tried every tool in the van and failed miserably and then in
> desperation they'd hammered a socket onto it without stopping to think tha=
t
> would only spin because the bolt had a rotating collar on it to prevent
> pikey car wheel thieves doing just that. So we now had a stuck bolt plus a=
> socket stuck on it filling the hole in the wheel and preventing any other
> tool getting anywhere near the job. Nothing would persuade the socket to
> come back off. I even tried welding a hook to it and levering that with a
> 6ft crowbar but it eventually just snapped the hook off.
>
> To add to the woes the bolt was hardened steel. I managed to drill a pilot=
> hole through it with my only carbide drill, a 5mm one, but trying to open
> that up with bigger HSS bits was getting nowhere. Carbide porting burs wer=
e
> just being blunted without making much progress and after scrapping a =A33=
0
> one I gave up on that too. I tried making more pilot holes around the
> original one with the carbide drill but the odd shaped end to the bolt whe=
re
> the key fits meant I was trying to drill into an interrupted shape rather
> than solid metal and in the end I snapped a flute off the end of the drill=
.
> Finally I managed to weld into a hole about 1 inch deep through the inside=
> of the nut to tack it to the rotating collar with my MIG and got the socke=
t
> and collar off. Next step was to try and weld a nut to the remains of the
> bolt but my little MIG didn't have the grunt to really stick the two
> together. In the end I hammered another socket onto what was left and it
> came out :) Only took 5 hours.
>
> So I'm left with a buggered carbide drill bit which used to come in really=
> handy for pilot holes in tough jobs. It's always much easier opening up a
> starter hole than trying to drill from scratch with HSS in nasty materials=
.
> A new one is only about a tenner but I'm hoping to get it reground. Howeve=
r
> it would need shortening by about 5mm due to the missing flute on one side=
.
> I reckon I can clean it up somewhere nearer on my diamond wheel but I'm cr=
ap
> at hand sharpening drills and they always pull to one side after I'm done
> with them.
>
> So does anyone have a diamond wheel drill sharpener who could finish it of=
f
> for me or know of a place who would do it without it costing as much as a
> new bit?
>
> Second question. I was really struggling to weld things as big as a socket=
> or a 19mm nut to a big bolt with my little MIG. Everything was glowing
> yellow hot inside the job but not actually sticking together. Maybe chrome=
> plated sockets and zinc coated nuts are not ideal things to weld together
> but there was little I could do about that. In the workshop it seems to co=
pe
> with smaller stuff like welding a 13mm nut to a stuck 8mm stud which what =
I
> mainly use it for.
>
> I think I either need a bigger MIG or a stick welder for stuff as big as
> wheel bolts or should I still have been able to do it if the materials had=
> been nicer to weld to? It didn't need any fancy welding - just enough
> adhesion to stick the two things together well enough to get the bolt out
> with a socket bar. Comments/suggestions?
> --
> Dave Baker
> Puma Race Engines
Hi Dave
As no one else has offered help, I shall step in. I note you are only
5 miles from Bert's old shop, in which direction? E-mail me your
address and I'll pick up your drill bit, will a four facet grind do?
T.W.
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