Moving slider to bottom holes for spoilboard surfacing & snapped one bolt which now spins freely without moving in or out. Not enough head exposed to grip with pliers. Suggestions as to how to remove bolt?
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Use a rare earth magnet?
Are you sure it is broken and not stripped, if it is broken take out the other bolts and. pull the part forward.
If it is stripped you will have to turn it as you pull.
As a quickie that won’t do further damage, you might try putting a bit of strong 2 sided tape on the head and see if that will hold, or try gluing a pc of thin cord using 5 min epoxy or CA glue… You are pretty much going to have to remove the part and hope there is enough of the broken bolt showing that you can get a grip with vice grips (good ones) to turn it out.
My infinity is on order so I cannot see exactly what you are looking at, but there are any number of tricks for getting the bolt out. Biggest problem will be if the bolt has broken off flush with the carriage, it is almost impossible to drill out a small steel bolt in an aluminum part, you may need a friend with a milling machine.
Hot glue gun to small wooden dowel to broken bolt , maybe?
How did it get broken? In the few days that I have been around here have seen a few warnings about overtightening those bolts.
My money is on stripped.
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Hey - thanks for the response!
I hand tightened the screws when first mounting the router bracket/Z-axis, and wishing to move to the lowest holes for surfacing a spoil board, I stripped the head socket of one of the mounting bolts with a T hex wrench. I saw it spark!
So, I removed the X gantry and laid it Z axis “up”, attempted to drill the bolt and remove with a screw extractor, but could not get any purchase on the bolt. Next, I wrapped the Z axis rail adjacent to the bolt with plastic and duct tape, sawed a slit atop the bolt head, and easily removed it with a screwdriver. With a new bolt from ACE, I only have a wee scratch in the paint on the router bracket to remind of this day…
Peace!
J
Hey - thanks for the response!
I hand tightened the screws when first mounting the router bracket/Z-axis, and wishing to move to the lowest holes for surfacing a spoil board, I stripped the head socket of one of the mounting bolts with a T hex wrench. I saw it spark!
So, I removed the X gantry and laid it Z axis “up”, attempted to drill the bolt and remove with a screw extractor, but could not get any purchase on the bolt. Next, I wrapped the Z axis rail adjacent to the bolt with plastic and duct tape, sawed a slit atop the bolt head, and easily removed it with a screwdriver. With a new bolt from ACE, I only have a wee scratch in the paint on the router bracket to remind of this day…
Peace!
J
Hey - thanks for the response!
I hand tightened the screws when first mounting the router bracket/Z-axis, and wishing to move to the lowest holes for surfacing a spoil board, I stripped the head socket of one of the mounting bolts with a T hex wrench. I saw it spark!
So, I removed the X gantry and laid it Z axis “up”, attempted to drill the bolt and remove with a screw extractor, but could not get any purchase on the bolt. Next, I wrapped the Z axis rail adjacent to the bolt with plastic and duct tape, sawed a slit atop the bolt head, and easily removed it with a screwdriver. With a new bolt from ACE, I only have a wee scratch in the paint on the router bracket to remind of this day…
Peace!
J
Ah it was the hex key socket that slipped, was thinking that you had broken the shank of the bolt.
You can get a diamond disk for your dremel and use it to cut slots in bolt heads.
There is always a way, and good on you for solving the prob.
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Hey John,
you haven’t tried loosening or tightening metric allen bolt heads with US customary allen wrenches, or have you?
The Onefinity manual clearly states that the Allen wrenches needed are metric 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 mm Allen wrenches, and the Official Onefinity Assembly video tells that you need an M3 hex key for the bolts that hold the Z slider to the X gantry.
Also, I would absolutely avoid ball end allen wrenches (except for their specific purpose).
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