Need advice removing stuck/broken bolt in Norwood blade guide

[Machinebuilder]

I hope by now you have ordered the new part.

Please post a picture so we can see what you are dealing with.

[efiles123]

I'm trying to post a pic of what I'm dealing with but it says the pic is too big to upload. In the meantime can someone tell me if motor oil will be good enough for drilling out the bolt? Or do I need cutting oil? I'm planning on using a friends vice and drill press tomorrow.

[doc henderson]

good cutting oil will stick in place better and protect your drill from overheating.  with a onetime deal and no cutting oil, and if the bits are nothing special, then go for it.  Long term, if you buy expensive bits, use good cutting oil.  If you find a place with good quality bits, they should also have drill cutting oil.  a tiny bottle will last me a lifetime.

[efiles123]

Well the hardware store didn't have any left hand bits so I attempted to remove by drilling with drill press and using an easy out. I drilled pretty deep and was able to get the easy out locked in but it ended up breaking just like last time. Looks like I'll be ordering the new blade guide tonight. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread! Had far more responses than expected!

[scsmith42]

Well the hardware store didn't have any left hand bits so I attempted to remove by drilling with drill press and using an easy out. I drilled pretty deep and was able to get the easy out locked in but it ended up breaking just like last time. Looks like I'll be ordering the new blade guide tonight. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread! Had far more responses than expected!

Wanna see my shocked look? 

Over the years there have been a few times that I've successfully removed a broken #10 or even #8 screw (typically on a firearm), but never one from an environment as hostile as a blade guide on a sawmill.  The smallest that I've been able to remove on a sawmill guide was a 1/4" (and that was with the welded nut trick).

Re pics, if you're using an Samsung android phone there are features in the software that will let you reduce the size of the photo.  I typically reduce to 40% in order to post.  Surprisingly the Apple product does not offer this option (to my knowledge).

[doc henderson]

well now you can push into the scary techniques if you already have a new one, and this will just be your back up.

[YellowHammer]

Actually, getting the drill to make a hole in the fastener is the hard part and you just did that.  All that's left is to continue to drill it out the rest of the way to get a nice clean hole and retap the hole to the bigger size and done.  No different than tapping a hole in any other piece of metal.

Drilling into the fastener deeply and cleanly was a success.  Breaking the ez out is not unexpected as they are generally junk. 
When I drill out a fastener, even using a left hand twist, if it doesn't want to reverse out politely, I just keep drilling and have it come out in little bitty chips instead of one big piece.  I won't even pull back on the drill press.

[YellowHammer]

Here is a video that might help.  They show how to drill to the same size and retap to the original thread but I generally like to drill out completely and go up one size.  Either way, learning to remove and retap a broken bolt is a very important life skill for someone like me who sometimes doesn't have the patience to "play" with a reluctant faster.

https://youtu.be/-YQWN_hVqDk?feature=shared   

[hilltopper46]

Is this the part you are trying to save?



If it were mine, I would slather the allen head screws with never-seize or a good grease when assembling. I would remove them and inspect them several times a year as well. Steel screws counter sunk into that aluminum block (with a moving blade that is possibly wet to boot) will cause exactly the problem you are having.

[efiles123]

Is this the part you are trying to save?



If it were mine, I would slather the allen head screws with never-seize or a good grease when assembling. I would remove them and inspect them several times a year as well. Steel screws counter sunk into that aluminum block (with a moving blade that is possibly wet to boot) will cause exactly the problem you are having.

Yep that's the part! I now have a new guide on order as the broken bolt wasted two easy outs and a bunch of my time. I had soaked it with kroil and use a torch to heat the aluminum with no success.