....
He bought the bolt. When we got back, it didn't go into the forging
easily. Bob is a very good engineer, not ham-handed or a "get a
bigger hammer" sort of guy. He's also a fine craftsman in wood. I
showed him how we could make a tap that, while not good enough to cut
threads, could clean and restore them. I took his stub, cut four
longitudinal grooves in it with an abrasive cutoff wheel in a
pneumatic die grinder. That produced sharp edges that could scrape
internal threads. I wound that into the hole on the forging with
visegrips, rocking it about 120 degrees as I progressed until it was
projecting well out the other side. Invited him to try the new bolt
now. He wound it in with thumb and forefinger, grinned. I
suggested he keep that "thread cleaner" for next time.


I needed the next step when my rear wheel came off the 5310 JD tractor. So,
after making the above I heated it cherry red and dropped in Kasenite. Made
a decent rethreading tap.

BTW, a rear wheel coming off a large tactor would have made a great story in
Don's hands. I'm not a word craftsman like Don.

Karl