I broke the plastic clamp on a little cheapie lamp a while back. I was working in the room where I had it last when I broke it and in keeping with my new modus operandi of non procrastination, I grabbed it when I left the room and took it out to the shop. I had the yellow handled clamp from a different lamp so all I had to do was file out the hole and bolt the lamp to it. Six months and five minutes later, all fixed.
Belly side view of a Mack Bulldog hood ornament. I picked this up someplace years ago because everyone should have one. The only problem was there was a bolt broke off in one of the mounting holes. And it's been that way for years and years. It too was in the same room as the lamp, so I scooped it up and took it along to the shop when I took the lamp out to get fixed. This one took about ten minutes but it was an easy fix just the same. Ten minutes and who knows how many years. Sometimes I wonder what in the hell is wrong with me. Not enough to change but enough to wonder even after all these years of being this way.
The bolt was a 1/4-28 that was broken off in there and it was below the surface of the leg a bit. There's a couple of ways to fix these things. Drill a hole and use an EZ Out. Rarely does this end well, especially on small bolts or studs. You can drill it out to the proper tap drill size and carefully tap out the remains of the original bolt. This works much better on larger bolts but you have to drill exactly on center of the bolt. This rarely works well either. Mostly because some ham-fisted dude will try drilling it out with a hand drill and the hole is no where near the center. You can drill it out using a left-handed drill bit. This works pretty well unless the reason for the broken bolt is due to someone bottoming out the bolt in the hole. The idea behind the left handed bit is that hopefully the bit will catch in the bolt and spin itself out. If it doesn't and you have the hole on center, you can still drill it with the proper tap drill and go that route.
The problem with trying to drill out the bolt on the Bulldog is it would not be easy to clamp securely to put in a drill press or mill. My drill press doesn't run backwards so I would use the mill. It's also much easier to center the bolt using the handwheels rather than bumping the vise around on the drill press. If it's a precious part then you could take it to a machine shop with an EDM machine and they could take care of it. Wouldn't be cheap but it would be done and done right.
However, if you know a cracker-jack welder, this method is the way to go. Since the bolt was broken off below the surface a bit, I used the TIG to build up the top of the bolt until it was slightly above the surface of the leg. I then welded on a lever to turn it out of the hole. Rather than just cranking on the lever, however, as soon as I break the arc, I spray the bolt with penetrating oil. I usually use PB Blaster. Then I tap the top of the bolt with a hammer. The penetrating oil shrinks the bolt slightly and the tapping helps work the oil down around the threads. This really helps if you have a broken bolt in an aluminum casting. Then you tap and wiggle the lever back and forth until you can feel the bolt start to turn. Add a little more oil and keep tapping and wiggling back and forth until it spins easily. Sometimes you have to work at it a bit but rarely will you come across one that doesn't come out. The worst ones are the ones where someone bottomed out the bolt and that's what caused it to shear.
Two jobs done in less than an hour, how 'bout that? Not sure what I'm going to do with the Bulldog but I like running up the score. I need to put on my mask and go to my side hustle this morning. My boss has a problem he can't figure out. Yep - gonna miss me when I'm gone.
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