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How to remove cover?
- Thread starter BWS Arms
- Start date
if you stick a little screwdriver down in the hole on the cover, and feel around for the lower, center adjusting screw, is it tight? Can you back it up to push the cover upwards?
I see a gasket in there, I bet it just needs a little "tap" to break it loose. Find something round to stick down that hole, hold it vertical, and tap it left to right. Screwdriver handle taps maybe, not hammer blows...
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2013
- Messages
- 3,207
I recently had occasion to make a set of four custom lifters to make possible the removal of plywood floor panels. These are pretty big panels — each is just under 4’ square and 5/8” thick plywood so they’re pretty heavy. They make up a system that covers the entire 30 x 30 room and the space between the panels is only 1/8”. Yup, an eight of an inch. Anyway, I made these four lifters out of pieces of 1/8 x 1/2” flat bar. At the top there is a T-handle and at the bottom business end I milled away all of the flat bar save for 1/8” a short distance from the bottom of the lifter. I’ll put a diagram at the bottom, I know this is getting confusing…
In use, two guys have one in each hand and put the narrowed end into the 1/8” gap between the panels. Then, we rotate the lifter a quarter turn so that the unmilled part of the flat bar can rotate under the panel edges. Then we just lift straight up and the panel lifts out. That’s a maybe a thirty-pound panel hanging off of four spindly little 1/8” sections of bar. This works because even though there isn’t a lot of overhang, the fact that the edges are milled nice and square they can take a lot of straight-up load. If we tried to do the same thing with a set of bent hooks I don’t think it’d work, the panels would be too heavy.
Where I’m going with this is could you take a thin rod that just clears that centre hole, mill a notch into one side of it with nice crisp edges, and use that in the same way as we use our lifter hooks? In other words, insert the rod until the cover sits in your notch, slide the rod over a bit, and lift straight up?
Wouldn’t take a lot to try anyways. Here’s a sketch of my lifters…
In use, two guys have one in each hand and put the narrowed end into the 1/8” gap between the panels. Then, we rotate the lifter a quarter turn so that the unmilled part of the flat bar can rotate under the panel edges. Then we just lift straight up and the panel lifts out. That’s a maybe a thirty-pound panel hanging off of four spindly little 1/8” sections of bar. This works because even though there isn’t a lot of overhang, the fact that the edges are milled nice and square they can take a lot of straight-up load. If we tried to do the same thing with a set of bent hooks I don’t think it’d work, the panels would be too heavy.
Where I’m going with this is could you take a thin rod that just clears that centre hole, mill a notch into one side of it with nice crisp edges, and use that in the same way as we use our lifter hooks? In other words, insert the rod until the cover sits in your notch, slide the rod over a bit, and lift straight up?
Wouldn’t take a lot to try anyways. Here’s a sketch of my lifters…
I will try that tomorrow.
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2017
- Messages
- 2,383
Turn a little dowel, with one end small enough to drop into the screw hole. Using a parting tool, make a groove near the end that can engage the lip of the hole. You want to use a little pry bar, like the one that @ChazzC showed to lift it out so either make another groove for the pry bar or, if you turned the dowel from larger stock, use the remnant larger-diameter step for the pry bar to fit underneath. Spacing/dimensions depend on your particular problem and set of pry-things you have lying around.
Use a piece of shim stock to keep the pry bar from marring the top surface of your cross slide.
If the small end wants to back away from the lip as you pry on it, insert a small-diameter length of wire on the back side of the dowel so it can't back away from the lip.
One you get the thing out you could either thread it for a slightly larger screw prying thingie (technical term
) or file a notch on one end so you can get a little flat screwdriver under there.
Use a piece of shim stock to keep the pry bar from marring the top surface of your cross slide.
If the small end wants to back away from the lip as you pry on it, insert a small-diameter length of wire on the back side of the dowel so it can't back away from the lip.
One you get the thing out you could either thread it for a slightly larger screw prying thingie (technical term
) or file a notch on one end so you can get a little flat screwdriver under there.I’m going to either make a new cover or order one. I have tried everything to remove it without destroying it. I even turned a can of R134 on it to try and shrink it enough to free it up. It’s time to drill it and use the slide hammer.
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2020
- Messages
- 1,751
More than likely someone used silicone to seal the cover on.
Silicone should not be used on most machine tool applications.
Silicone can make a cover so hard to remove that it brakes during removal.
This might not be a big deal for you with a little cover on your own personal peice of equipment but imagine trying to remove a large cast cover that is to thin to accept the prying required to get it loose.
If I see silicone along the edges of a stuck cover I stop and inform the customer that this might be damaged and they must approve and accept the consequences.
I use permatex form a gasket #2 non hardening.
.
Silicone should not be used on most machine tool applications.
Silicone can make a cover so hard to remove that it brakes during removal.
This might not be a big deal for you with a little cover on your own personal peice of equipment but imagine trying to remove a large cast cover that is to thin to accept the prying required to get it loose.
If I see silicone along the edges of a stuck cover I stop and inform the customer that this might be damaged and they must approve and accept the consequences.
I use permatex form a gasket #2 non hardening.
.
A couple of things come to mind.
Have you tried heating the cover to see if it would soften anything that might be sticking it down? Dried oils or silicone or even loc-tite products usually all respond to heat by getting soft. 300 to 400 F should do the trick.
Could you epoxy something onto the top of the cover that you could later get a good grip to pull with?
At this point is seems you have nothing to lose with epoxy, which could be cleaned off later. The more glue surface you can manage the more force you can put on it.
Have you tried heating the cover to see if it would soften anything that might be sticking it down? Dried oils or silicone or even loc-tite products usually all respond to heat by getting soft. 300 to 400 F should do the trick.
Could you epoxy something onto the top of the cover that you could later get a good grip to pull with?
At this point is seems you have nothing to lose with epoxy, which could be cleaned off later. The more glue surface you can manage the more force you can put on it.
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2020
- Messages
- 1,751
Imagine trying to pull a suction cup off with a straight pull.
Oh and the suction cup is a 1965 casting weighing about to heavy for two guys to pick up....
I have dealt with it many times and it just plain sucks
Oh and the suction cup is a 1965 casting weighing about to heavy for two guys to pick up....
I have dealt with it many times and it just plain sucks