About two weeks ago I was tightening a stainless steel bolt (the one the holds the little subframe, that holds the front fairing/ mirrors on), noticing it wasn't going in very easy I naturally carried on winding thinking brute force will conquer... This was the point I should have stopped, taken it out, and checked the thread. I got to probably the last turn, when it suddenly got very easy to wind! Oh toad, lets hope there's some thread sticking out to grap on to. Of course there wasn't.
It was a m6 bolt and the best drill bit I had was probably a 4mm Ti or HSS. After what seemed like an hour of drilling, all I had managed to achieve was a nice smooth Indent in the bolt.
At this point I gave up, concentrated on getting through my exams for the next couple of weeks, and finally got to tackling the bolt again today.
Rather than working hard, I thought about working smart for a change. I bought a 2mm and 3mm cobalt drill bit (expensive, but worth every penny) and some 3-in-one oil. The result was drilling through about 2cm of stainless steel in a minute or so, I couldn't belive it!
Just use a center punch to dent the center of the bolt, apply the oil to to drill bit and bolt then drill away. Use a low speed with a little bit of force.
I then tried using the 'easy' out to extract the bolt, but it didn't bite and just blunted (probably because it was so hard to get in in the first place). I was also told that if the easy out breaks in the bolt it will be nigh impossible to drill and make your life 10x worse.
My dad then said to try hammering in an oversized torx bit. Sure enough, it worked!
After that I just re-tapped the hole and was good to go. I hope this will save some of the useual :smt013 when doing this sort of job, it certainly did for me.
Removing a broken bolt without 'easy' outs
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Re: Removing a broken bolt without 'easy' outs
I done something similar with an exhaust stud years ago.
It snapped and was in a position that I couldn't get a stud extractor onto it, the frame was in the way and I didn't want to drop the engine out.
I hammered a small old socket onto the end of the broken stud and then just took it out with a ratchet.
It snapped and was in a position that I couldn't get a stud extractor onto it, the frame was in the way and I didn't want to drop the engine out.
I hammered a small old socket onto the end of the broken stud and then just took it out with a ratchet.