How to MAYBE extract broken bolts.

I've been doing this stuff, restoring old tractors and machinery for a half century now and here are some of my methods. Get some PB Blaster Penetrating Catalyst. Absolutely the best for softening any rust. I'm surprised that you didn't mention it. Most people are in a hurry and think that it will work right away. It doesn't. Patience is needed. Let it sit for a day or two. Make sure the part is always wet. Re-apply as necessary. This is what I'll do if the broken bolt is below the surface. If any of the bolt is above, or flush, I'll always mig weld a washer to the bolt and a nut to the washer. Wait till everything cools and out comes the stud! Piece of cake! Below the surface; Take a large prick punch and a good size hammer. Prick the center of the broken bolt. A couple of good whacks with the hammer will help break things loose. Get some left handed drill bits. I've found that properly prepared bolts will unscrew as you're drilling, MOST of the time. Snap-On are the best, but expensive. I start by using a standard 1/8" right handed drill bit (don't take the chance of breaking your expensive left hand bit) and drill down 1/2" or so. I'll now take a acetylene torch and heat the broken bolt if there is nothing flammable near by. You're only going to heat the bolt very quickly and not the surrounding metal housing. I'm talking like 5 seconds here. Not getting it white hot. If there is a chance of combustable hydraulic fluid, take a 200 watt soldering iron and heat the bolt until you see the penetrating oil start to smoke. More patience! Let everything cool! Take a break, have some coffee! The stud has to shrink back. Now I'll take a larger left hand drill and carefully start drilling. I little warning here. Some new drills are too sharp and will suddenly grab and break. I'll take a fine stone and remove a little of the cutting angle, making it closer to 90 degrees. The same thing you do when drilling soft brass or copper so the drill doesn't grab. If you do break a drill bit, try welding a washer to it and most of the time you can take a pair of pliers and back it out. These methods work for me maybe 99% of the time. I hardly ever use the hammer in type extractors. Mainly because they'll expand the bolt and cause it to be harder to remove. Just thought I would share some experience. Maybe give it a try. Broken bolts don't have to be a pain in the ass!

Hats off to the drill bits that sacrificed themselves for our entertainment

I feel like when terrible people die, they're reincarnated as drill bits in your garage.

"oh man, that's tougher drilling then when the wife comes home from Tupperware and red wine tasting..." L0L

Nice to see someone else destroy drill bits for a change.

WD40 - "..must have high fructose corn syrup in it..." that cracked me up, very clever joke.

I usually start drilling with the smallest bit I feel safe with drilling and not breaking. Something less than an 1/8". Don't drill all the way through with that small bit. Walk the bit around and make sure it's dead center. I can't stress enough how important getting dead center is. After you get a center hole started then go a little bigger. I rarely fool with easy outs anymore. Just drill and tap. If you don't have the right drills and taps or don't have the money to buy them . You probably shouldn't be trying this yourself. You don't turn easy outs with a crescent wrench. Use a tap handle . When using taps and easy outs, watch for torsion in the bit. You can see it twisting before it breaks. 45 years after watching someone do this and thinking " that looks easy, I can do that" It's still not easy but I rarely fail to get one fixed. I've only welded a nut on a broken bolt once or twice.

Then he finds out it’s a left hand thread

I was one of those suckers who paid &45-$60 almost 15 years ago for those crapsman extractor pack. Still have them and don't ever remember getting them to work in anything metal.

great video, i love watching others work on my day off. some bolts you are just not going to get out, like steel or stainless bolts in aluminium, like the bolts in exhaustflanges on a 2-stroke engine's cylinder. they been fired up and cooled down so much that they pretty much bond chemically or something. only thing to do is drill through, and cut new threads, or drill it out and cut new threads one size bigger. never used extracters in the shop for fear of breaking them and adding a new problem.

I work at a Tire Shredder as the only maintenance guy and we have two Columbus McKinnon (CM for short) shredders. They have two large rotors that turn into each other with rows of 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2" wide rectangular knives that are held to the rotor with three bolts each, 3/4" head 1/2" thread. about 360 knives per rotor. If something goes through the machine that it can't cut then it'll either break a knife or break the bolts holding the knife to the rotor. (chain reaction and normally causes hours of work.) To avoid taking the machine apart and needing to setup our mag drill to drill out the bolts (about 3 hours of work) we use a welding rod much like the "X-Tractalloy" rods you've probably heard of. Its tricky and the margin for error is very narrow when starting the process because before you lay down the flux with the first strike you can easily weld the broken bolt to the threads if you're not centered. But I just peck away at it. Strike and burn a bit then pull out. Wait for it to cool to cherry red. Drive back in. Eventually it builds a weld up out of the hole, weld a nut on her, blow on it with the compressed air to speed up to cooling process. After about a minuet we hit it with PB Blaster (not sure that it does much but we do it anyway.) and back the bolt out!

13:15 - NO ! Not using a croissant wrench on a stud extractor ! Uneven lopsided force makes the extractor want to bend, only they do not bend , they snap, like you demonstrated. Use a tap handle, supplies even force to both sides of the extractor. Gets the broken stud out more often, reduces the amount of colourfull language.

Use a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid, some old granddad knowledge passed on to me

@AvE have you tried putting your magnet in a bit of plastic bag or a finger of latex glove? makes getting all the metal bits off easier

I am spending 15 minutes of my life watching a man attempt to get broken bolts out of things. For the second time this month.

My dad always calls easy outs "maybe outs" lmao

Any problem on earth can be solved with the proper application of high explosives.

Who here has no idea what the hell they are watching but just think this guy is fucking hilarious?

Watching your frustrations and bit snapping have made my last 3 days of hitting my head on the wall with a project feel a little better. A treat as always, Thanks!

Thank you for entertaining and educating me. I wish I had been taught by someone like you - although I realise I'm only seeing a small snippet of you and the reality could be far different. I am bound to come across all sorts of sheered and rusted in fittings if I ever get around to fixing some cars I have; this is valuable knowledge. I've never been confident with any of the skills I have learned, but you help to offset that and provide a good source of information that helps to fill the gap in my head. Thank you for another great production.