Have you had one of these weekends recently?
This past weekend, I was trying to get the leveler feet off of my V63 and managed to get 3 out of 4 rusty feet off of the machine in preparation for taking care of all of the accumulated rust (by the way, the POR15 tip was right on the money!). Of course, there is always one bolt that will not cooperate. I used Selig's Master Mechanic as well as PR Blaster to no avail. I was using a 1 1/16 wrench on the feet, but only managed to round off the edges. So... I dragged out the pipe wrench as a last resort. I got great leverage. So great, in fact, that I snapped the foot off of the leveler. At this point, I did not have a bolt extractor, so I decided to use some more of the trusty solvents and moved to the other end of the leveler foot bolt. Naturally, I broke that end off the bolt too.
So, off to the hardware store I went to get more tools. I first went with a stud remover, but the stud remover required more length to the shank of the bolt than I had available. So, back to the store I went. This time I elected to purchase the more elaborate and expensive bolt extractor option. Confident that I now had the tool I needed, I drove back home to give it a whirl. Not only did the tool not work for the task at hand, it also wound up reversing (it's the way the 'tool' works) the chuck, bit, and all right off the end of my drill.
By this time, Sunday was nearly gone, so I decided to take a "break".
I didn't have to go to work on Monday, so I decided I was going to give this process another try. I went to Lowe's and picked up a newer, more powerful drill to use with my fancy new tool. And, in a moment of pessimism, I also purchased a tap in case I had to drill the bolt out and re-tap the threads. So, I get home and happily sit down to my task. This time, not only does the chuck, bit, etc. come off the end of my brand new drill, but I also crack the collet on my day-old bolt extractor.
I needed another break, so I went to lunch and returned my day-old bolt extractor. As soon as I got back home, I sat down with my drill and tap. I drilled out the old bolt, and attempted to refresh the threads in the nut that the leveler foot goes through. I managed to get the threads refreshed enough that the bolt will accept the leveler foot, though it's not as tight as it should be. In retrospect, I should have probably simply drilled out the bolt in the first place, and had a better hole to tap.
In the process of my weekend spent trying to remove ONE bolt from my V63 I may have discovered an important weapon in the fight against seized bolts. I was told by a guy who works at Sears that he has begun to use a product called Anti-Seize by a company called (I believe) Permanex. Apparently, this stuff is supposed to work under extreme temperatures (-65 to 1500 F) and corrosive conditions. You simply have a cleaned part, and you put a thin coat of the Anti-Seize on it, reassemble the parts, and wipe off any excess compound. Allegedly, it solves the problem of bolts rusting together. So, I now plan on using this stuff on all of my bolts that will be exposed to significant moisture in my machine. Does anyone else have any experience with this product?
