This may sound arrogant, but after seeing so many people put themselves thru broken bolt misery, on an age old topic of broken bolt/tap removals. I just cannot help myself any longer. Plus, I’m out of coffee. Our 100% success rate on broken bolt extraction is becauseof the technique & tools. Whats best is that it couldn’t be more pain/anxiety free. As a journeyman Racecar builder, you do several different trades rolled into 1. Welding is an integral part of building a tube chassis veh. Our method of extraction is using a TIG welder. Its in every way better, & also does broken tap removals near flawlessly. I was taught this technique by another Journeyman racecar builder, bk ~1989, & have never used any other method since. Ues, you need access to a TIG Welding rig, & a reasonably competent operator of. Whether the female threads involving the broken bolt/tap are inside of cast iron/steel, forged steel/aluminum, cast aluminum, as well as magnesium castings, is of no concern either. The only thing a first timer might think thst it didn’t/wont work, is because you will, on about a 1/3 of broken bolts, & 2/3’s of broken taps, need to do the shampoo technique of ‘Rinse & Repeat’. So it add can add a few minutes to your success. On very rare occasions, you must do the process 3x’s. Still taking less time than to clamp a part in a drill press or mill. Ever put a V8 block on a drill press? I don’t make youtube videos nor am I a teacher or ever wantedcto be one. Yet, I see things constantly in my auth enthusiast related world, that we conquered decades ago, yet nobody remembers history. So goes the saying, those who do not remember, are doomed to repeat it. If anyone cannot find a good YT bid that covers this, than I can explain it in detail. The details are important, & a good video would be better than just a written instruction process. Hint: use stainless steel welding rod when at all possible. After you build your “leaning Tower of Pisa”, atop the surface of the broken fastener, & then gripping the tower of cooled off welding rid with the vice grips, to then unscrew the bolt. The rapid heating (thus thermal expansion & thrn contraction, as the heat then flees broken bolt/stud, very much so aids in breaking the bond that held the fastener in place to much to begin with. I would even argue its the heat that removed the broken bolt, much more so than the ability to grasp onto it by dabbing welding rod upwards in a long enough shape, similar to stacking pancakes on top 1 another. Just 1 thing. Do not weld the fastener to the material the bolt is stuck into. Sometimes the welded tower column of stainless rod breaks off where ut meets the broken bolt surface, as the surface of the broken fastener usually has fractured material still on the surface, requiring you to repeat the process of building, from welding rod, by being dabbed in small lumps, 1 ontop another, till its tall enough to grip with pliers or preferably vice grips. Yes, an experienced individual will be better at this than a rookie. & knowing simple things like how to properly sharpen your Tungsten electrode, so that the arc doesn’t wander over to the casting or forging is important as well. Thats a Tig welding skill, & is more in the hands of the person running the Tig torch. Gotta be a YT video on this thou. So Im out. Kyle, I give you a lot if credit. Anyone willing to go to those lengths has real patience. I on the other hand, am lazy, so I am always looking for the easy way out. Breaking off end mills is something I do very well, so I shy away from this type of work. Im sure this post sounds arrogant, but I cannot believe in the age of cheap TIG welders from places like Harbor Freight, that every motorsports enthusiasts doesn’t own 1.

Unfortunately, I have to remove a LOT of stripped and broken bolts in my job. Left handed bits are your friend. I can’t even recall the last time I used an e-z out.

I have a drill press sitting on my shop floor. It’s not the Bridgeport of my dreams, but it’s decent, and the more I looked at it, the more I realized this drill press had the capability I needed. With a little effort, I could build a good, rigid setup—enough to drill a right-angle hole, at least. If I could figure out how to fix this broken extractor myself, the process would likely bestow upon me the knowledge and experience to avoid this whole song and dance again. The catastrophe you are prepared for rarely strikes, right? Off to McMaster-Carr to buy some carbide.

Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters called Kyocera SGS a “great, great company” that does “a lot for the community.”

THE KEY IS NOT TO BREAK THE BOLT IN THE FIRST PLACE ,,before breaking figure out how to remove without breaking ,,, will result in breaking 90% less bolts

Council member Tim Gorbach (At Large) thanked Kyocera SGS for its “commitment” to the schools and the city.

Reporter Phil Keren can be reached at 330-541-9421, pkeren@recordpub.com, or on Twitter at @keren_phil.

Kyocera SGS is the second-largest employer in Munroe Falls, trailing only the school district, according to Ann DiCola, the community and economic development coordinator for Munroe Falls.

The company has manufacturing sites in Munroe Falls at 55 S. Main St. and 103 S. Main St. that are 32,000 and 20,000 square feet, respectively. The 78 full-time and six part-time employees who work in those two buildings will be relocated to structures at 220 Marc Drive and 238 Marc Drive in Cuyahoga Falls this year, according to Haag. Those employees encompass nearly $5.7 million in annual payroll. In addition, about $11.3 million in machinery and equipment will be moved to the Marc Drive sites.

An easy-out is not formed of unobtanium, though, but of high-carbon steel. Badass stuff in the metal world. It is hard, enabling it to bite into and grab a mutilated bolt—a problem we never admit to creating but always boast about fixing. On the Rockwell hardness scale, high-carbon steel falls in the middle of the chart. Even so, the material is very brittle—and not in the delicious way, like the peanut brittle Nana used to make. If you introduce a fraction of a side load while using an extractor, you will snap it off—often flush with your workpiece—leaving you defeated.

That last part was unfortunate but acceptable. Installing new threads or repairing those that remained would be easier than trying to save the delicate M6 threads. Not only were they formed decades ago, but, since they were on the oil-filter cover, they had also suffered hundreds of hamfisted tightenings and overtorques. Thread forms distort with multiple uses, especially when they are made of aluminum, so the thought of new threads in this piece was almost a little comforting. Doing the thread repair with the case cover off the motorcycle and on the bench was an obvious plus.

Tom Haag, president and CEO of Kyocera SGS, said his company manufactures items in the Cuyahoga Falls buildings and transports them to Munroe Falls, where the products are prepared and shipped. Having all of the products in Cuyahoga Falls will help the firm reduce its logistics costs “immensely,” said Haag.

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While noting he would ideally like to have the move happen this summer, Haag noted it’s possible it may not occur until closer to the end of the year. Once the relocation happens, Haag said the buildings at 55 S. Main St. and 103 S. Main St. will be completely vacant. He noted there are no immediate plans for those buildings’ future use. Options include using the buildings for other company divisions, or leasing or selling them. The company built the structure at 55 S. Main St. in 1987 and moved into the building at 103 S. Main St. around the year 2000.

Carbide in hand, I had to think about setup. Luckily, the table of my drill press has T-slots in it to help the user create a more rigid setup. However, I could only do so much—especially after realizing there was no place locally to source T-nuts. My plan switched to going through my drawer of random hardware until I found the right combination of bolts and nuts. Finally, I had fastened the side cover to the table at three points. I then wound the table as high as I could to keep the quill as high and stiff as possible. The name of the game was rigidity. (This is not to be attempted with a cordless drill.)

Some people take the easy way out (I will not apologize for that pun) and pay to replace the whole part. At first, it may have made sense to fix the broken bolt; when that little chunk of unobtanium easy-out became embedded in the bolt, the purse strings suddenly got a little looser.

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Great save Kyle! And let me add a few suggestions: invest in an assortment of carbide centerdrills instead of endmills. They’re stubby therefore more rigid, come with two cutting ends, and are more robust in dealing with interrupted cuts as is usually the case with broken hardware. Also, consider coming at it from the opposite side. Even if it was originally a blind hole, a clever guy (or gal) can often locate, fixture and drill from the back end. Personally I have a dismal record with easy outs, I believe they exert just as much force expanding the broken piece (which was already tight enough to break off) as turning it but I have a superb success rate with every other method.

Carbide is the next step up from high-carbon steel on the Rockwell hardness scale, which means it can pierce high-carbon steel without losing its edge. I selected two sizes of end mills made of carbide. With 90-degree tips designed specifically for plunge cutting, they should be able to remove not only the easy-out but also the bolt—and, likely, a decent amount of the aluminum of my workpiece, a case cover.

There were a number of ways to go about solving that last piece of the problem, but mine was the most final. The re-formed threads would fail at the same rate as the OE production ones—good enough, considering that the other two bolts for this oil filter cover are original threads.

Kyocera SGS’ Marc Drive buildings are in the Woodridge Local School District. State law only requires the city to notify the district about the proposed tax break; the Board of Education does not have to approve the abatement. Woodridge currently receives a total of $537,872 in annual property taxes from 220 Marc Drive and 238 Marc Drive. The planned renovation of the buildings, as well as the relocated inventory and equipment, will increase the value of the properties, according to Colavecchio. This means the school district will receive more annual property tax money ($609,069) from the these two Marc Drive buildings during the 10-year abatement period. Once the abatement ends, the district will receive $822,674 in yearly property tax funds from the two structures.

In the garage, there are some rigid concepts that define the ways we can do things. High-speed steel will not drill out a carbide end mill; that is fact. How you use this knowledge, however, is highly variable. Once you understand the facts that constrain a project, your brain can switch fully to creative thinking and problem-solving. The materials I use demand to be used a certain way; knowing that enables me to choose the right tool for the job or, when doing something off-piste, to stack the deck in my favor. The combination of the flexible and inflexible will set your project free. It is the workbench yin and yang.

“We envision, long-term, some pretty substantial growth,” said Haag, who added the company is “kind of land locked [in Munroe Falls].”

I’ll add another vote for EDM if it’s easily available. Years ago I had a broken off bolt in the flathead of my Jeep. Someone at work knew a guy nearby that ran an EDM shop. I stopped in with my head and he had it out in minutes and said, how does $20 sound? I couldn’t get a $20 bill out of my pocket fast enough!

Company officials approached Cuyahoga Falls leaders in early 2018 about relocating the employees, equipment and inventory from Munroe Falls to Cuyahoga Falls, according to Diana Colavecchio, community development director for Cuyahoga Falls. She noted that negotiations then began to establish a tax break deal. In conjunction with the planned relocation, Kyocera SGS is asking Cuyahoga Falls City Council to approve a 10-year, 75-percent enterprise zone property tax abatement agreement. Council is set to vote on the deal on Jan. 13.

Of course, the end mill broke. Luckily, there was plenty sticking up, so I grabbed what remained and yanked out the end-mill. With a small punch, I knocked the leftover easy-out onto the bench, which allowed me to step up to the 6.4mm bit to cut the final diameter of the hole. I used a tap to form threads and the repair was complete.

Kyle, since you have McMaster Carr access (as do I, 17 minute drive away) buy from them carbide drills rather than end mills. They sell straight flute, 135° drills that are extremely tough and aren’t as fragile as milling cutters. The drill press setup wasn’t too bad as your cover was held down securely. Center punching the bolt remains is crucial if you want that drill to go down the center but as there was already an EZ-Out stuck there you’d have to use a stone grinder tip in a Mototool or similar to make that central divot. Let’s go back to the very beginning of this situation – why wasn’t a form of penetrant oil applied to the bolt when the removal torque seemed excessive? Or was a powered impact driver used that masked the feel that could have provided a clue that the screw was galled in the threads?

Kyocera SGS Precision Tools is a leading manufacturer of solid round carbide cutting tools such as end mills, drills and reamers, according to the company’s web site. The firm was purchased by Kyoto, Japan-based Kyocera Corp. in 2016.

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Very interesting as this is always an adventure. I’m not overly experienced in the space as yet but have seen loads of folks doing things mentioned above in the comments. My best success so far has been a tool called rescuebit. Kind of pricey but has chewed through just about anything I’ve dealt with as yet. The only challenge is you need some room to ‘woggle’ it a bit as you go, but works great. Most times I’m able to save the threads and just clean them up a bit.

Kyle, excellent “bit” (couldn’t resist) I had never thought of this, will make a mental note and see if I can do a “Step up” next time I am presented with this very real thing. Thanks

++there is a very easy way for broken bolts; the tool is called ‘left turner’, which is a conical shaped screw. One has to drill a small hole, maybe 3 mm, into the broken bolt. Then you insert the ‘left turner’. Due to the conical shape, the screw will lock itself in the hole, when you screw it in. Just turn left and the screw comes out like a dream.

Colavecchio said Kyocera SGS is not planning to physically expand any of the Marc Drive buildings. There are currently 125 employees at the Marc Drive properties and Colavecchio said the company intends to retain all of those workers, too. Kyocera SGS recently acquired a 22,000 square foot building at 120 Marc Drive, which Haag said means his firm now owns five buildings on 23 acres on Marc Drive.

With a little cutting oil to keep things cool, I started pecking at the cover with the lever that controlled the quill of the press. The 90-degree tip of the end mill enabled me to carefully locate the actual center—not the poorly drilled hole now filled with easy-out—and begin to remove material. It was a delicate game of managing speeds and feeds by hand: I had to put enough downward pressure on the end mill to prevent chatter—the cutting faces skipping along the surface of the material rather than biting into it—but not so much pressure that I began to generate heat.

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I have removed a lot of broken bolts over the years and have had the most success with the method described by TMS

The company has a third building in Munroe Falls — a 12,000 square foot research and development, human resources and information technology building with about 15 employees at 54 S. Main St. —  that will remain in its current location, Haag said. The company has been in this building since about 1970, but Haag noted the firm had doubled the size of the structure during the last few years.

You have an interesting theory on easy-outs regarding the expansion of the broken bolt. Maybe I can rig up a way to test that.

Applying cutting oil and taking breaks every few minutes made the whole process feel like it took forever, but it was really maybe 10 minutes of actual work stretched across an hour, me stressing the whole time about breaking the end mill. That would all but require me to call for help, and I would not be real proud to carry this mess into someone else’s workspace.

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“It’s very much a company that cares about our community as a whole,” added Bryan Herschel, executive assistant for the Summit County Executive’s Office.

The company is planning to spend $2.97 million to remodel the inside and outside of the 220 and 238 Marc Drive buildings to match the design of a third building at 150 Marc Drive. The interior of 220 Marc Drive will be redesigned to house the company’s PVD coating operation and the building at 238 Marc Drive will be a warehouse that holds $8.1 million in finished goods. A vast majority of the 84 employees from Munroe Falls will be relocated to either 220 or 238 Marc Drive, said Haag. The others will go to 180 Marc Drive, a 75,000 square foot building that the company built in 2015.

The further into things the more I learn and deal with headaches. I’ve not had the ‘opportunity’ to deal with much of what you folks mention, but wanted to toss this in.

A tool company is planning to make a $22.4 million investment that will move 84 employees, equipment and inventory from two buildings on Main Street in Munroe Falls to a pair of structures on Marc Drive in Cuyahoga Falls sometime this year.

I’m convinced no more worthless tool has ever been created than easy-outs. I have never had one actually do anything other than break. I just recently went to change out the thermostat in my ’84 Z28 that has an aluminum intake instead of the standard cast ones. Of course anti-seize wasn’t used and one of the bolts snapped. After sacrificing about a dozen nuts to the welder and heat to try and get it out, I had to by a tool steel drill bit to drill through the extractor. Drilled through it all until the tip was just left and spinning. Couldn’t get it out with a magnet and my shop vac couldn’t get enough of a seal on it to suck it out. I have to take a toothpick with superglue on the end to grab the extractor tip and get it out of the way. Then I was able to redrill and tap the hole. Yes I did it with a cordless drill while the intake was still on the car. Fun times…

“Having businesses like yours here, we get excited about the jobs, we get excited about the money and sometimes we get too wrapped up in that,” said Gorbach. “It’s important to have companies such as yours with your type of leadership and your passion for the city …We appreciate the partnership.”

Kyocera SGS has also committed to providing one or more paid internships and a $1,000 scholarship to the school district for each year of the abatement.

At least partially defeated. Now comes the escalation of force, the switch from rigid to flexible. Solving the problem of a broken extractor requires understanding the materials you are dealing with. If you rush ahead, you will end up with a mangled part and a pile of dull drill bits.

Nothing allows you to safely use a tool or material outside of its design parameters quite like understanding how it works and preparing for what could go wrong. The freedom enjoyed by most people who work on cars comes from the ability to understand what they can change about a project—tools, materials, process—and what they cannot. While the tools and space you need to work on a given project are rigid, curiosity is endless and often leads you into interesting adventures.

Colavecchio said the county will provide $50,000 to Kyocera SGS to re-train the relocated employees on operating the newer equipment.

My latest adventure was self-inflicted: I broke the head off a stuck bolt, a rite of passage for DIY enthusiasts. Some of you are even familiar with the second level of that situation, dealing with the broken “easy-out” screw extractor.

As I was removing the oil pan from the engine of my MGB, I discovered the previous owner had broken off one of the pan bolts. With the engine dangling precariously from the engine crane, I attempted to remove the bolt with a counter clockwise easy out bit which off course broke off leaving a pea sized piece embedded in the bolt. After trying every type of bit I had I then went out and purchased a carbide tile bit and laying on my back underneath the engine drilled out the bolt with a hand drill. I was not too optimistic but to my surprise the tile bit ate away at the offending material until the easy out remnant popped out. I then proceeded to drill out the rest of the bolt, ran a tap into the hole and hoped for the best. To my surprise the threads held and a new bolt was installed even though the top of the hole was a bit mangled. Perseverance, patience and a bit of luck are essential on a job like that which will inevitably creep up on all of us at one time or another.

As a life long machinist I have removed a lot of broken bolts. It is really tough with a drill press because they simply do not have the rigidity needed to support using carbide end mills especially long shanked ones. And if you try to feed it with the drill press quill, you’re going to have problems. Fortunately, the trusty Bridgeport was my go to machine. Finding the center of the broken bolt after clamping the part to the table securely, I would simply center drill, then use a tap drill to remove the bold and then pull out the threads, if you do a good job, the come out like a spring. Next, it there was something hard broke off in the bolt like an extractor, Same procedure except I use a short shank carbide 4 flute cutter and instead of using the quill to feed the cutter, I lock it in place, use high rpms and crank the table up very slowly while blowing air in the hole. I realize most people do not have a Bridgeport style machine but if you are going to do these things, consider getting one. They can be found pretty cheap used. I am way retired and have one as well as a drill press. Each has their benefits. I have also extracted bolts using the welding a nut on the broken bolt method and have had success with that. Everything simply cannot be put in the milling machine so you have to do what you have to do, including an automatic center punch. By punching the bolt or screw in a counter clock direction close to the edge of the bolt, it may start to back out. Was I 100% successful? No, but I did become very good at it and it became routine. Don’t rush, take your time.

The last time I broke an easy-out, I immediately picked up the phone instead of the tools. This time, I couldn’t bring myself to call for more experienced assistance. I needed to deal with this myself.