New Engine for splitter

[Cobleskill]

Pretty common item at the fleas. Bought several replacements for broken ones. But Amazon is OK too. Flea markets can be fun. I bought 3 pairs of old, good shape American made pliers for $5 this fall. Bough a bunch of differnent kinds. Bargains are easy to find and fun to look. Usually a tool guy with nothing but. Try them lately?

 

[BlackSmith]

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yup, those.

 

[Cobleskill]

I think I would drill a hole in a piece of scrap and see how that worked out before I ran it in to a brand new engine block. It might work fine, might gall the shit out of them. Aluminum can gall without much effort.

 

[No_Bivy]

. Already a holes in the mounting plate. The are self threading bolts not screws......no center punch needed. The bolts are three sided so to speak.

anyway.....several you tubes of folks using and impact driver to rattle them in....I was planning on by hand slowly.

they look similar to what blacksmith posted.........so any tips to putting them in? or just shut up and do it......

motor here on the 5th

 

[SkwerI]

Run them in by hand and back them up a quarter turn whenever you get too much resistance. Spray some silicone lube in the hole before starting and add more if needed while running the bolts in. They are cutting threads so run it in like you would a tap.

 

[No_Bivy]

good suggestions

 

[BlackSmith]

In a pinch I’ve made a tap out of a spare bolt. Angle grinder and cutoff wheel or hacksaw, cut some grooves in the bolt. Temp tap, harder the bolt the longer it’ll last. Save a trip to town.

 

[SeanKroll]

They are cutting threads so run it in like you would a tap.

Can you expand on this?

 

[Tree09]

You take a cutoff wheel, and manually score out the thread so it looks like a tap. You leave the following edge (the side that is going to do the cutting) either straight up and down or just slightly undercut, so it cuts nicely. You then heat the bolt up to red heat at a minimum, then quench it (works best with the higher grade bolts), ideally with some oil, lacking that, water works too but can possibly crack the bolt. You then have a redneck tap. Works with pipe thread too, but only to clean out or straighten messed up threads.

The reason you use the higher grade bolt you can find is because of the carbon content. The more carbon, the harder you can get it. By heating it up, you are changing the grain structure of the steel, quenching freezes that grain structure. You are actually forming martensite if you have something with a higher carbon content than mild steel.

 

[SeanKroll]

Cool. Thanks. I learn a lot, here.

 

[Tree09]

Np, very handy trick sometimes. Much cheaper than buying a tap, and will work quite well. Very very useful in the larger sizes, because taps that big are very expensive and unless you own a machine shop, are used a few times on a project then never used again. Another cool and similar trick is let's say you are going to cut a bolt down to a shorter length, you thread a nut on first, then cut the bolt, then back the nut off. By backing the nut off, it straightens the final thread back to where it should be, so you won't fight getting it started. Same idea kinda, but in female form.

 

[Cobleskill]

WD-40 is a good lube for tapping aluminum.

 

[Raj]

Quenching steel in mecury makes it very hard.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

And poisons you. Highly toxic vapors.

 

[Tree09]

That it does, but the steel nowadays tears itself apart from even a water quench. Too much manganese and no sulfur. Metallurgical advances have come along way since the days of crucible and Bessemer steel and wrought iron. Cryogenic hardening is used too nowadays on some steels.

 

[BlackSmith]

Had some mig tips dipped in liquid nitrogen just for chits and giggles (copper), they lasted five times longer than undipped.

 

[Tree09]

Nice! Nozzles or contact tips? You said tips so I'm gonna assume contact tips. That's awesome man, I used to go through 2-3 a day doing ss. That hard wire eats tips like none other, and doing short circuit stuff requires a perfect tip. Most places around here got the pipe worx tho, so pulse eliminates most of the headaches.

 

[No_Bivy]

splitter is re powered with Honda.... works great. finally moving after the flu and being outside splitting wood felt good. Too bad it started raining...

FWIW......those self tappers are supposed to be only threaded half way....then the final threads cut when engine is mounted. You cannot use a tap for them......slight difference in threads. Oh well......... turned then in fine and everything mounted right up.

Honda sure is easy to start compared to the old POS briggs

 

[Al Smith]

If you are going to case harden a bolt first heat it up to cherry and toss it in a can of brown sugar .Of course it will catch fire .After it cools heat it up to orange and quench it in oil .Sugar is c6 H12 o6 .You burn off the hydrogen and oxygen and the carbon infuses into the steel so it can be hardened .You could heat and quench mild steel a hundred times and it will never get harder < that trick BTW is older than the hills .

 

[flushcut]

Quenching steel in mecury makes it very hard.

Really?! I got about five pounds of mercury from my parents that I have no clue what to do with.

 

[flushcut]

splitter is re powered with Honda.... works great. finally moving after the flu and being outside splitting wood felt good. Too bad it started raining...

FWIW......those self tappers are supposed to be only threaded half way....then the final threads cut when engine is mounted. You cannot use a tap for them......slight difference in threads. Oh well......... turned then in fine and everything mounted right up.

Honda sure is easy to start compared to the old POS briggs

Hondas rule!

 

[Tree09]

Awesome trick there Al!!! Thx