G Broken Engine - Photo

Heat the stud and not the block.

Set a close fitting washer on first and weld it to the broken stud. Then weld a nut on top. Put a wrench on the nut and start backing the stud out.

Instead of using a nut I take a heavy strap iron drill a hole in it a little larger than the broken stud and weld that to the broken stud. It's easier to hold in place while welding and being larger it protects the block or what ever when welding. 

More great ideas!

You can get a stud remover from sears- 
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00904458000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

or call your local auto parts store and see if they will loan one out.

And heating the bolt softens it so that constraint of the metal around it give it clearance when it cools. Welding the nut on does that heating really quick.

Gerald J.

I took a look at the product reviews for the tool Bee mentions above. I had used one that belongs to a friend - it worked pretty good for me, but he has owned it for years. The gist of the reviews is that it's a great concept, those manufactured years ago were really good, and the new ones now available are junk. Don't know if that's the right story, but I'd go cautiously on buying a new one. Now, if I find one at the used tool store, that could be a different story!

I saw a NAPA version of that Sears stud extractor in a NAPA store today. They wanted more than $40. I wanted something much smaller for pulling deck screw stubs. I think I've invented a scheme. I'll use a sturdy easyout and a nut with the two sizes picked so it binds on the #8 deck screw stub. I'll know if it works in a few days.

Gerald J.

I found some tools for removing broken deck screws on line, but within 12 miles two hardware stores, two lumber yards, and a B&D outlet store didn't have anything like what I saw on line and hadn't ever heard of any such thing. Their solution was "vice grips" but I doubt their chinese vice grips will hold on to a #8 deck screw and I'm sure my US made have enough wear they will slip too. Besides backing out a dozen of them twirling them with vice grips gets old in a real hurry. Using a nut and a large easy out should solve the strength problem of the easy out and wedge tight on the screw stub.

I might think to take a picture if it works.

Gerald J.

As DickL has wisely pointed out the success rate of the various easy out type tools varies considerably with just exactly why there is a problem to begin with. Over torqued, rusted in, sheared off and eroded shanks are all differant problems. Heating and quenching and welding tricks are OK,, IF they work. If not you just made a tedious job into a darned miserable one. One thing that allways works is drilling and tapping and it isnt that hard to do IF you do it first, not as the last resort. If anything at all is sticking out I grab it with whatever will latch on to it, Vice grips (USA Peterson by the way) pipe wrench etc. If it comes out good, if not the stub needed to be out of the way anyway. Grind what is left flat with the deck to make it easier to center the hole and spend a good bit of time centering your center punch mark. This is done by makng a light mark then moving it by angling the center punch as you deepen the mark. Once done I touch the mark with a good 1/8" bit and double check my center moving the drill to make changes. Then move direcly to the tap drill size. I have watched people try this and they seem to miss out on the key points, CENTERED. Good bit and good tap.  Grind the stub flat so you can see the center. Make the punch mark in stages moving it to center. Get you drill centered when you start it. Drill in two stages, not 10. Use a good bit a tap and youll be done while the others are still cussing.

I plan to put the planks back in the same places. But with wood, they probably won't fit back down over the stubs sticking up after being off a few days. So I'd like to pull the stubs and put in new. At least these shouldn't be as tough as steel rusted into cast iron. I figure on using longer deck screws for the replacements, maybe self drilling torx that the lumber yards claim don't snap off.

Centering on the end of a thread gets confused by the thread, even when ground off flat. A few years ago I was trying to measure the clamp bolt spacing on my JD 4020 rear wheels so i could make rim adapters (went from 18.4-34 to 12.4-42 for spraying). Working with the bolt ends I couldn't get a consistent distance. So I made up an parallel based on a bit of angle iron that was about half the width of the nut and scribed three lines on the ends of the bolts working off the flats of the hex nuts. Measuring between triangle centers I had a dozen consistent measurements. And when I built the adapter plates, all 40 holes lined up with the bolts, no reaming required. The bolt holes in the wheel centers were a snug fit and in my plates were a full 1/32" oversize. Point is, it might be easier to leave some stub sticking up on a head bolt, grind it flat, but bore out a nut to fit snugly and scribe lines across opposing nut corners when the stud threads are at the flattened end.

And when drilling a left handed drill is handy because if it catches, it just might back the stub out. Better than drilling with a pilot and bigger drill is to use a 132 degree split point that doesn't need a pilot. I drilled those 21/32" holes in half inch steel plate without a pilot drill and they were located as perfectly as I could measure with the milling machine. About 20 holes later in 3/4 steel that drill needed a touch up on the grinder.

Gerald J.

I built a flat bed trailer with those trailer deck screws. They are made to screw into steel, not wood joists. I probably still have some somewhere on the farm. The house deck will get other screws, I'll worry about them after the digging under the deck for a new septic pipe is completed.

Gerald J.

Glad you got them out. Here is what I do. First take a punch and hit the bolt hard to straighten out the threads.[ Most of the time they break when overtightening, you end up stretching the threads.] Then drill out the center of the bolt with about a 2/3rds the size bit that the bolt is. Then I take a wire welder and reweld the hole shut. That makes the entire bolt red hot, expands the bolt and breaks any sealer or rust loose. As it starts cooling, touch the bolt with a candle, not too soon or the wax will burn up, but keep testing until you can see the wax melt and wick down around the threads. At this point you can usually turn it out with left hand bit or pliers if you have enough standing out. Or you can  weld a washer on it. Then turn out with a pair of pliers.  Dave.