Soluzione di un Problema che non Dovrebbe Mai Avere Successo

A few months (on maybe semesters) ago, someone managed to snap the screw on the tool holder of the lathe in half. How? I have no idea. It was replaced reasonably quickly, but with a carriage screw, which has no means of gripping it. So this is how we dealt with it for how ever ridiculously long period we did:

 Yes. By destroying it with vice grips. It was ridiculous. So, being propelled to action by anger at this ridiculousness last night, I took the snapped bolt home with me, and went to the hardware store this morning to pick up a hex bolt to replace it. Turns out hex bolts don't come with threads the whole way down- who knew? So I got a new carriage screw, but this one's got a square base that happens to be exactly the same size as the square top of the proper bolt. So I ground down the head.

 See? Lovely. Just gotta take out the old POS and put in my replacement. Only it only twists a little bit either way... So, I sawed off the top intending to twist the sucker back out.

 Oh noes! The bottom is smashed! Sawed that off with my jeweller's saw. But, the sucker's bent, and now it's sharp, so all that accomplished was wasting my time and arm strength and getting my blood on everything.

 A quick conference with the nice men down in sculpture and we ground a slot into the top and forced it out with a power drill. Yeah!

 FIIIXED! Fixed and 2 inches too tall but check it out!

Oh, and I bought a respirator with the last of my money today, so now I can't buy food for a week, but I will still be breathing by the time I get paid next!

Moral of the story: don't crank on a bolt with a mallet, don't replace the broken one with something that's complete crap, and don't try to twist out a freshly sawed screw with your bare fingers. Now to anodize.


Oh, and I'm keeping the broken ones as a trophy attesting to my problem solving prowess. If it were bigger I'd mount that sucker over a mantle. Pshaaah!