Inductive Heat Tool for Rusty Bolts - MUST HAVE

[Ray Cecil]

[Gary Lewis]

I LIKE IT!  But, at $500 from Amazon I think I'll use my MAPP gas torch.

[Ray Cecil]

I hear ya. If money were no thing, I'd have to build a garage 5x as big as the one I am now to fit all my tools and cars.....

[Gary Lewis]

Well, so much for the MAPP gas idea.  I had this lower plenum with a twisted off thermostat housing bolt, so thought, in light of the above discussion, that I'd prove that I could get it out easily.  Here's the twisted-off bolt before my attempts:




And, after a round of MAPP gas and Vise Grips well and truly applied the only difference was that the paint was gone.  


So, out came the welder and I welded the nut to the stump of the bolt.  Lots of penetration and heat, and the nut glowed red for quite a while when I was done.  And it looked like this:




After it cooled and I'd flooded it with penetrating oil and coaxed it with lots of tapping, I gently started tapping on a wrench with my hand.  Pretty soon I started getting movement and thought I was "there", only to learn that the stump was now 1 turn shorter.  

So I did it again, this time ensuring that the weld was as hot as I could make it to both get as much penetration as thermal shock on the threads.  And, now I have two nuts with about 1 turn of the bolt in them:




So, now there's only enough thread showing to fill a nut, and I have Loctite Red in there and will let it sit overnight before seeing if that will work.  

[NotEnoughTrucks]

Did that weld a nut on trick on a broken water pump bolt on a 351W a few weeks back. Works well.

I have a couple of induction cooktops that I use in the motorhome. Pretty simple principle and I wonder how difficult it would be to DIY something like this? Basically, a moving magnetic field and ferrous metals develop eddy currents which become heat.

Intriguing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0p165dnsA

[Gary Lewis]

What about running serious current through the bolt via an arc welder?

[NotEnoughTrucks]

Heard of thawing frozen metallic pipes that way.

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, me too.  Don't know how to do it easily with a MIG, but would be a piece of cake with a stick welder.