When you’re working away on a project (metal project) and the bolt you know you shouldn’t have turned anymore snaps off. What do you do? Remove it in about a minute that’s what!
So here’s the setup.
You’ve been trying to remove the pesky bolt, and you finally start to get it moving and feeling relieved. Suddenly that wrench turns a lot more than you were expecting. The head has snapped clean off. You now have a broken bolt.
After some colourful wordplay, then going across the shop to get the wrench that somehow ended up over there.. No judging here, we all have those wrenches with wings on them don’t we?
Get out your welder and weld it in
Wait a minute, I know what your thinking, but stick with me for a minute, I promise my welding will remove the broken bolt.
Step 1:
So you have a bolt that is broken off. If its possible grind the area clean and smooth. In my case for this project I required a flat surface once complete anyways.
Step 2:
Next place a sacrificial nut on top of the broken bolt. Try to center this as much as possible to make the next step easier
Step 3:
Use your welder and place a nice beefy, hot tack right in the middle of your nut. Be sure to penetrate all the way down the shaft of your bolt. Once you have full penetration you can relax for a couple seconds before proceeding.
Step 4:
Before the weld cools right off, lets use that excess heat to our advantage now. The heat should have helped to loosen up the threads on the bolt. Before it cools completely take a wrench and slowly start to extract the bolt with the newly created head. If all goes well that bolt should turn right out.
Remember to let it cool for a few seconds, Trying to extract the bolt while the weld is still glowing red hot will just allow the molten weld to break and you have to return to step 1
So How did it work?
Did this work for you? I would love to hear some feedback to see if it works in other situations.
For some clarity I recorded myself using this technique and you can watch the short video clip below or on YouTube.
Until next time, thanks for reading.