CS100 blade bolts....

[njc110381]

Well what a day that's been! Who'd have thought such a basic job would be so bloody hard?! And it's still not done!

 

Yep, today I tried to change the blades on my CS100. Got my shiny new set ready, spanners in hand and set to taking it apart. I've never done one before but it was easy enough, until I got to the blade bolts. Do they put these things in with superglue or something? I can't shift a single one of them!

 

First off I just went for the standard socket set spanner with the T40 bit. Nope, not budging. Ok I thought, I'll give them all a good smack with te hammer and get the breaker bar out. That usually works... Nope, not happening. So out comes the plusgas for an hour's soak. Guess what... Nope, not budging. By this point I'm beginning to get a little irritated, so having a little idea how to play this game, I got a length of copper bar and hammered it into the bolt head. Copper is soft, so it form fits perfectly. It also conducts heat really well. "I'll f***ing show you you f***ers"... I thought to myself as I soaked the blades in oil and proceeded to torch the bar. For those who don't know, this is a great way to apply really intense heat to a screw or bolt without really applying much heat to the surroundings. Fill the bolt hole with oil and cook the bar/bolt until the oil boils. Boiling oil penetrates much faster than cold oil. Meanwhile the blade stays cool enough to touch. All good.

 

So 15 minutes later all bolts have been oiled, heated and attacked with the impact driver. Two pretty good quality T40 bits in the bin and I'm knackered. I hate to say it but the b****** has beaten me! I've left it to soak over night and I'm off out for a curry and beer to drown my sorrows. By the time tomorrow comes, hopefully a couple of you lovely lot will have shown me the way and all will be well.... PLEASE!!!!

[htb]

Time to break out the welder, they are barstewards

[Jase hutch]

I found that just drilling the heads off with a decent drill bit and some cutting fluid was actually quicker than trying to weld nuts to the knackered bolt heads.. 

Just drill the heads off with a drill bit larger than 9mm and lift off the blade and wind the remaining thread out by hand.

Don't forget that when tightening the new bolts , the torque is just 28Nm..

[njc110381]

I think my action plan for now at least will be to soak them for a couple of days. If that doesn't work then I may as well drill the heads off. I've got a drill press that the whole cassette will fit on. If that fails, I guess I can weld nuts onto the studs. I'm just waiting for the studs to snap and need drilling and retapping. That'll really make me jolly!

 

I don't understand why the blades are put on with such silly little bolts? The machine was designed from scratch - put something with a bit of meat on it so you can give it some welly.... My old TW never gave me these issues. It had big allen bolts on it that you'd struggle to snap even with a breaker bar.

 

[david wood]

Never done this particular chipper but did works old god knows what petrol one with same bolts

 

heat is good, then once as hot as possible get it with freeze and release spray 

 

then good fitting bit, worked for me - and thats me cursed for next time!

 

 

[Guss109]

As said above just weld on nuts then break bar them off. Put plenty of copper slip on when you refit them and it will make a difference next time. I've got mine in for sharpening so will be doing the same in a week

[njc110381]

What a ball ache! Hey ho - the curry was good at least!

 

I haven't surfaced this morning yet. Kind of dreading it to be honest. Hopefully the soaking they've had over night will have done something. I'll not hold my breath! First things first, off to the shops to try to find a decent T40 bit (or ten) on a Sunday!

 

Thanks for the words of wisdom chaps. I had kind of braced myself for the fact that there would be no miracle cure that would just allow me to undo them as expected!

 

Edit... Oh and copper slip gets put on everything. I learned that when I put a second hand linkage on my Unimog and the seller had gas cut the back of the chassis off and stuck the lot on a pallet rather than undo it! Copperslip rules! It saves so much trouble later on.

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by njc110381

[njc110381]

21 hours ago, Jase hutch said:

I found that just drilling the heads off with a decent drill bit and some cutting fluid was actually quicker than trying to weld nuts to the knackered bolt heads.. 

Just drill the heads off with a drill bit larger than 9mm and lift off the blade and wind the remaining thread out by hand.

Don't forget that when tightening the new bolts , the torque is just 28Nm..

Well today's prize goes to this man. You sir, are a legend! Thank you so much!

 

I welded nuts on and even they sheared off, so I tried this. Got to be honest I didn't believe the studs would come out if I did but I lost my rag and prepared myself to drill and tap the lot again. But sure enough, half an hour and one side is done. It's Sunday so I decided not to do it all, but at least now I know tomorrow will have a positive outcome. They actually do unscrew by hand - I'm amazed! Only two out of the four needed a bit of help with a little chisel as I drilled them a bit deep and there was nothing left to hold on to.

 

I'm going to see if I can get some blade bolts that have a different fitting tomorrow. A bigger allen or torx head I think would be good. Torque figures for fitting have been carefully noted!

[Jase hutch]

If the bolts are tightened correctly to the new torque of 28Nm , they should come out ok, we don't lubricate the threads but what we tend to do before removing the bolts is to give them a good smack with a broad punch and then using a ratchet fitted with the T40 torx bit we use a piece of steel about 600mm long ( something about 30mm × 10mm should suffice ) with a 10mm clearance hole drilled through one end and using a long 10mm bolt dropped through this hole and then through one of the bolt holes in the 'cassette' used for monting it back into the chassis. We can then apply pressure onto the ratchet and bit by pressing the length of steel across the top of the ratchet , if you can keep the bit engaged firmly in the bolt head then it will always come out....

I hop you can follow this .........

Jase..

[njc110381]

Yeah I can picture what you're saying. To be honest I didn't once suffer with my bit camming out though. The bits just kept snapping!

 

Giving them a good whack with a punch was one of the first things I tried to release mine. It's usually a good trick. I think I will need to lube my threads because the machine doesn't get used much. I've had it over a year and this is the first time I've had the blades out! In future I may just undo them and do them up again every few months to be on the safe side.