# A most Un-cooperative SOB tonight !



## mmcmdl (Nov 7, 2020)

Walked into a emergency job tonight . Broken 3/8-16 grade 8 bolt broken in an extruder pump flange . So far , made up a centering bushing jig , broken off 2 split point cobalts , finally got thru the bolt , then broke off one of my Irwin extractors . I have never broken one in the past 43 years ! 2 hours into it , I still have a broken bolt but have a nice pretty hole thru it . 

I instructed the operator to take the temp up to 550 and I'll be back . If that don't work , the "heat  wrench " is coming out . If that don't work , it's down to the EDM machine on Monday after dis-assembly of the whole friggan thing .


----------



## westerner (Nov 7, 2020)

Don't sound like grade 8 to me.....


----------



## NortonDommi (Nov 7, 2020)

Flagstaff!  Way to ruin a weekend!


----------



## mmcmdl (Nov 7, 2020)

No luck with the bolt with the heat applied so it's out of my hands from this point on . I can't work on it with the other side of the machine running .


----------



## NortonDommi (Nov 7, 2020)

Beertime?


----------



## mmcmdl (Nov 7, 2020)

NortonDommi said:


> Beertime?



Don't I wish !  I have 8 more hours to go in here at work unfortunately .


----------



## NortonDommi (Nov 8, 2020)

Bugger.


----------



## Aukai (Nov 8, 2020)

Not enough of a nub to weld a nut to? Can do even blow grade....to an extent.


----------



## mmcmdl (Nov 8, 2020)

Nope , that bolt is in there Mike . They broke it trying to remove it . I drilled it out on center with a 3/16" drill with a bushing rig I made up . Broke 2 drills in the process . Then I snapped my easy out in 2 . The bolt kept on shearing and I'm now down to almost flush . It may need to be drilled out to the full .257 diameter but the machine is running now . ( opposing mandral side ) . Want some pics ?


----------



## Aukai (Nov 8, 2020)

Left hand bit?


----------



## mmcmdl (Nov 8, 2020)

Aukai said:


> Left hand bit?



Yep , wouldn't break loose .


----------



## dirty tools (Nov 8, 2020)

I remember days like that
LOL
you will get it just a few choices words and it will be out


----------



## jcp (Nov 8, 2020)

When I was a kid a running mate of mine and I both had Cushman Eagle scooters. Mine would usually start in 3 to 5 kicks.....his would take 10 or more. One day his started on the first kick and I asked what did he do to get this spectacular result. His answer was "I pre-cussed it"....I've been a believer ever since.


----------



## projectnut (Nov 8, 2020)

dirty tools said:


> I remember days like that
> LOL
> you will get it just a few choices words and it will be out


 I agree.  I've been in your situation a few times, and flowery vocabulary has always saved the day.  Some times your best tirades have to be repeated several times to get results, and don't forget MOTHER is only half a word.

On a more serious note the fact that you're working on extruders is interesting.  The company I worked for extruded their own packaging film and sheets for years.  At the time I worked there they had about 2 dozen production facilities with over 50 packaging lines extruding film.  Most of ours was laminate film of 3 or more layers to protect food products from oxygen, light, and bacteria growth.

I was not part of the "Plastics" department, but many of the production lines I helped design and install were coupled to extrusion systems.  The earliest were steam heated because most plants had their own powerhouses that generated steam to power generators for electrical power heat water, and provide live steam for production lines.  The powerhouses also had huge ammonia pumps for refrigeration and freezers.  As time went on there was less need for live steam so most of the extrusion systems were heated by electricity.

That's all in the past now since it's cheaper to buy film by the roll and sheet goods by the ton.  We went from a company that employed nearly 200 people, and had over a hundred machines dedicated to film and sheet extrusion to a company that is now outsourcing 95% of that capability.  The once thriving "Plastics" department is now down to 1 person who officially retired over 5 years ago, and is now doing a minimal amount on a contract basis.


----------



## The Shootist (Nov 11, 2020)

Where is the machine made? 

Those choice words MUST be spoken in the correct language.

The words Plasma, and Gas Axe are universal and do not require translation......


----------



## Papa Charlie (Nov 11, 2020)

I don't care to remember the number of times that a 15 minute job has turned into an 8 hour nightmare, with a plant manager screaming in my ear that he has to get the plant back up.

Somehow, his yelling at me never seemed to help me, but I guess it made him feel a lot better, because is seemed he did it a lot to everyone. I was so glad to say goodbye to that job.

My last company I was a part owner. We had developed a chroming process that used Physical Vapor Deposition (Vacuum Plating). The machines would vacuum down to 0.0000025 Torr. It didn't take much for things to go wrong with that low of vacuum or should I say pressure. A couple of molecules of air could through the whole process off. We used Helium to check for leaks. The sensors could read a single molecule of Helium.

Luckily, we only were in the High Vacuum range, things really got dicey in the Ultra High Vacuum systems.


----------



## mattthemuppet2 (Nov 11, 2020)

if the hole through is well centered then I've had a lot of success step drilling up to the minor thread diameter. Then you can often either pick the bits of leftover thread out or push a tap through, which will often unscrew the thread remants in the process.


----------



## Janderso (Nov 11, 2020)

Dave,
It could be worse, you could be in management.


----------



## westerner (Nov 11, 2020)

jcp said:


> His answer was "I pre-cussed it"...


My old boss never got this part of the job.....

He had an old McCullough chain saw. Big saw from the 70's. He would yank on the damn thing for a good while. His temper would finally show up, and he would blow a gasket at the same time he threw that saw across the yard. 

After a minute, he would go over and yank the cord. It always fired up.....


----------



## Janderso (Nov 11, 2020)

I lived in Lake Tahoe for five years in the 70’s.
Me and my buddies were always broke.
We would stand in line beginning at 2:30AM at the US Forest Service office to get the few fire wood permits.
As a team we would cut the trees in the forest, load several trucks, help each other unload at each other’s homes etc.
One of us would rent a splitter for the weekend and we would split 20-30 cords with lots of beer and lots of help.
Ok, I’m back now. 
One of the guys had a big old Mac Cullough chain saw.
He would pull that string for half an hour, once it started he would be off to the races.
Thinking back, we used outboard motor oil at 6,000 to 9,000 foot elevation.
Too rich!!
My Homelite always fired right up.
Sorry, I went down memory lane there with the mention of a McCullogh saw


----------



## Papa Charlie (Nov 11, 2020)

@Janderso  that brings back fond memories of the  friends  I grew up with.


----------



## projectnut (Nov 12, 2020)

I never used a McCulloch chainsaw.  They were too rich for my blood.  My only exposure to McCulloch products were the MC-10 go cart engines.  Again I never owned one, but they were big competition in the late 1950's and into the early 1960's.  We had  Mantis go Kart built somewhere in Kentucky  powered by the cheaper Clinton "Panther" engine.

At the time the Clinton A490 engine (2.5 hp @ 3,800 rpm) sold for around $50.00.  We went through our share.  You could always tell when they were near the end of their life because the RPM's would increase dramatically.  Then all of a sudden there would be a muffled boom and the rod would disintegrate into pieces about the size of a marble.  Sometimes we'd get lucky and could rebuild it.  More often it took out the reed valves and scored the cylinder wall.

Go Kart racing was big for the kids in our neck of the woods through the mid 1960's.  There were several tracks within a 40 mile radius.  The most popular one was in Milton Wisconsin.  If I remember correctly it was a miniature version of  the Road America track at Elkhart Lake WI.  The whole thing fell apart for the kids when the professionals started showing up around 1963.  The kids couldn't compete with the factory sponsored teams that showed up with a dozen karts, professional mechanics, and trailer loads of spare engines.

In those days the rules were pretty loose.  Some of the factory teams had custom engines that would put out 3 times the HP and more than double the RPM's of the same size stock engine.  They would change out engines, tires, and any other part that would give them an advantage, and often do laps around the kids.  The whole thing fell apart in the mid 1960's.  The kids and local spectators stopped coming because they knew they couldn't compete.  The track closed and eventually became a city park.


----------



## westerner (Nov 12, 2020)

projectnut said:


> I never used a McCulloch chainsaw.  They were too rich for my blood.  My only exposure to McCulloch products were the MC-10 go cart engines.  Again I never owned one, but they were big competition in the late 1950's and into the early 1960's.  We had  Mantis go Kart built somewhere in Kentucky  powered by the cheaper Clinton "Panther" engine.
> 
> At the time the Clinton A490 engine (2.5 hp @ 3,800 rpm) sold for around $50.00.  We went through our share.  You could always tell when they were near the end of their life because the RPM's would increase dramatically.  Then all of a sudden there would be a muffled boom and the rod would disintegrate into pieces about the size of a marble.  Sometimes we'd get lucky and could rebuild it.  More often it took out the reed valves and scored the cylinder wall.
> 
> ...



There used to be a 1/8 mile flat track that everybody raced on, with a bunch of different machines. Whoever ran the track had a good handle on what classes needed separated. My uncle introduced the whole scene to me in about 1971, ish. 
Every thing about that track is gone, and has been for a decade or more. Kids today have no idea what they are missing.


----------

