Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Next time.....:)...

There are a couple of things that might have helped. You can kill loctite by heating to about 400 deg F. It will pretty much release all of its grip, often a broken off stub can be removed simply by tapping around its perimeter with a sharp center punch. Next, you can use a left hand tap instead of an easy-out, many of those types of tools require pounding into the hole which tends to expand the fastener and make it tighter. 3rd, there is such a thing as a broken tap remover, a pronged thing that grabs the flutes (doesn't always work, and if it breaks you aren't really better off). I would have centered it up on the CNC mill and milled the stainless to within a thou or so of the root diameter of the thread, usually you can just empty what's left out. If not, it may be possible to clock the thread (if you can see any of it) and thread mill what is left. The ultimate "easy-out" is a ram type EDM machine, don't have one of those!

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