Lucas Blade Change Struggle

[Billhook]

It was all going so well!   Lovely log from a non hedgerow tree, just nearing the last runs and there was a raspy sound which lasted a few milliseconds.  That is how long it takes to remove all the five teeth on the blade.  Still never found what it was, but it must have been metal and well up the tree.

 

So I have changed many Lucas blades over the last twenty years, more than average as I have been taking them off to do some Lucas slabbing.  Never had too much trouble until this one and the Allen screws holding the blade were tight, and I mean tight.

I have some high quality socket Allen keys but you could tell something bad was about to happen if I put any more tension on the bar.  Tried a bit of heat but not too much which made no difference and I did not want to de-temper the blade.  No visible rust anywhere and the blade was last changed in the Summer.

Gave the hub a mighty belt with the hammer to try and shock something, still no joy.

 

The answer was for a friend to lean on the bar using moderate force while I hit the other end of the bar over the socket which is in turn over the Allen screw.  Doing this with moderate forces on both hammer and bar released all the screws quite easily.

 

Some of you may find this useful one day  (others may say go teach your grandma to suck eggs!)

[kimtree]

a bit of anti seize works too 

[muttley9050]

If you use thin nuts, you can put two on the back as a lock nut so you can turn it loose.

[Billhook]

Would a bit of copper grease help or increase the danger of working loose?

 

Anti seize sounds good as does the double nut, but I was amazed how easily the bolt undid with not too heavy pressure on the socket bar and not too heavy on the hammer blow.