Good Morning Sunshine!
I am usually in a bad mood when waking up, it doesn't matter if it's in the morning or after an afternoon siesta, I am always in a bad mood when waking up, it's due to anemia or so I was told. But that day, it felt different, I felt vibrant, pleased to say the least, I wasn't in a bad mood that day. I woke up, kissed my wife good morning, made our bed then went straight to the kitchen to prepare some break fast while my wife started her morning routine (God knows what she does inside the bathroom taking her time). Took a few eggs from the ref, made some scrambled eggs for my wife, sunny side up for me and the kids, and some instant pancit canton for me. Boiled water for some warm cup of morning beverages, warm chocolate drink for the kids while warm coffee for me and my wife. Though the kids were still asleep, I cooked some break fast for them so when they wake up a little later they have breakfast ready. ("well done James", I told my self as I look at the feast before me). A little later then my wife finally finished her morning routine and it was my turn to take a shower, and so I did and hurried as to prevent the food and drinks from cooling.
The Calm Before the Storm
Okay, I'm all set, uniforms, food, a pack of cigarette, I'm all set to go to school, I mean work, I walked to where our "service" (transport service) was parked, it was a good 2 kilometers walk and I didn't even break a sweat, "everything's going fine", I told my self, my boss is on vacation leave for 2 whole weeks right now, and production has low demand so we have very little work load, "I can steemit all I want during working hours!". I was thrilled, so I hopped into the "service" then listened so some songs on my phone while on earphone. Then we arrived at the company premises... "Nothing's gonna ruin my day today!" I told my self... Or so I thought...
Psshh! Piece of Cake... Wait!! What!??
When I arrived, everything was how I left it before my Day Off. I turned on my computer, checked all the maintenance check sheets, did a little house keeping to maintain the area's cleanliness.
Then someone arrived carrying something, Injection Section sent a mold for maintenance. "Is that it!?" I said to my self conceitedly as I went and fetched my tools from the rack, I started disassembling the mold as usual, cleaning the cavities till they sparkle like diamonds (okay I'm exaggerating), removed a few rust here and there, sprayed some anti corrosion agent and viola I'm almost done. The mold was scheduled for 1 pm production start, and it's not yet 9 o'clock in the morning and I'm almost done, "I'm so good!" I said to myself! Only a few bolts to tighten then that's it. Then it happened...
Unforeseen Calamity
As I was tightening the last pair of puller bolts, I heard a sound, "Tack!!" coming from the other side of the hexagonal wrench, at first I thought the hex wrench didn't withstood the pressure and broke, when I looked, both hex wrenches were fine ( you need pair of wrenches to tighten puller bolts). Then I went on again thinking the wrenches just slipped and made that sound, but then I was surprised, the already tight pair or puller bolts were now somewhat lose, so I need to tighten it again, then "Tack!!", this time softer than earlier, then the puller bolts fell in opposite directions. "I'm screwed!" it's the first thing that came to mind...
The cursed thing that made my day hell, well, it's half of the cursed thing! The other half is still yet to be retrieved... T_T
Pinch!
"I am so effing screwed!!!" that's the only thing that kept repeating inside my head. Need to do something, need to act fast! I took an M8x35 bolt, about the same size with the one that broke, and took off the head using a grinding machine.
This is how an M8x35 Bolt looks like, I just removed the head part.
Now all that's left are the threads. I inserted the headless bolt into the puller rod, to imitate the original puller rod+bolt combination. That's one less problem, great! I can work with this, it's almost problem solved, I sighed a sigh of relief! Now, back to the other half of the puller rod, that's where problems began to arise, I can't seem to remove the original bolt from the other half of the rod. I tried looking for an extractor to remove the bolt inside but I can find any extractor anywhere! Palms are sweating now, it's almost 10 o'clock first short break of the day, I skipped my short break just to remove the remaining bolt inside the other half of the rod. I searched on google "how to remove broken bolts" and I found something that looks promising! Welding! Alright James! Let's get to work! I looked for a nut that would match an M8x35 bolt, and luckily I found one, alright! On to welding!! I was very optimistic that this would work since even youtube suggests this method if there are no extractors around that can be used. I was full of hopes only to be crushed later on...
The frigging bolt won't hold on to it's dear life. It kept letting go of the nut.
I've tried welding it many times but it just won't work, the bolt's too small to use the usual welding machine so I used the ones usually used with cavities, but to no avail, I am now in the depths of despair once again! I tried searching anything that can be used, so I found an old hex wrench size 3, so I drilled through the bolt, so I can insert the wrench then weld it in place into the bolt. My hopes were up again, only to be shattered the second time around!
I don't know what material this wrench is made of, why welding won't work on it.
The welding machine that crushed all of my hopes into pieces.
It's almost 12 noon, need to think fast, what else to do, no extractor, no left handed type drill bit, I am running out of options. Then the 12 noon break time chime came, I ate my lunch as fast as I could, the food tastes bitter, I chewed only a few times then swallowed, need to act fast, 1 o'clock is fast approaching. Trapped in a corner with the time limit coming and resources thinning out on me, I am almost out of breath, my visions were cloudy, I can hardly think clearly, then it hit me, I need an extractor!!! I don't have the exact material I but still have resources and equipment. So I hurriedly went to get some M6x50 bolt (a thinner variety than the damaged one) then grind the bolt to resemble an extractor...
Improvised extractor
My breathing's getting heavy and labored, if this will not work nothing will, it's do or die, anyway I'm dead if this thing doesn't come out before 1 o'clock PM. So then the moment of truth! I drilled a bigger hole into the remaining part or the bolt, from a 3mm bit, I took it up a notch to a 4.7mm drill bit, just enough for the "extractor" to fit, I put my extractor into the hole I made from drilling then hit it with a brass hammer a few times, not very hard, just enough for the sharp part of the extractor to dig into the hole of the bolt. Then with all my might I turned the wrench attached to the head of the extractor, but the bolt fragment won't budge, I was so disappointed, I almost cried. But then I realized, I was turning the wrong direction, instead of releasing the bolt remains, I was turning it to tightening direction, I almost slapped my self for the stupidity, so I composed myself again, ready to give it another try, the opposite direction this time. I turned with all the energy I have left, then I saw a little movement from the bolt fragment, "It's turning! It's releasing!!!", from small turns to big whole 360' turns and another whole turn until the fragment was finally removed. It was very satisfying and relieving at the same time. It's like an orgasm in a way, now I can breath again.
The cause of my headache and nearly cardiac arrest, this small little thing.
And that's how I nearly died due to dehydration, fatigue, cardiac arrest and hyper tension, during a normal day at work (nah, just kidding, but still, I was very nervous, I even, still feel a little nauseousness as I write this article just remembering that day.). Moral of the story? Not all that starts well ends well, and also the other way around.
And that's it for my biggest mess up story, I hope you folks enjoyed this little entry, hope to see you guys soon. And I would like to thank @futurethinker for hosting this wonderful and fun contest, but most of all thank you for always supporting small minnows such as myself in this platform. Images used that are borrowed are from pixabay and are properly cited, the ones without citations are the ones that belongs to me.
© @jamesanity06, 2018
Damo nga Salamat! Maraming Salamat po! Thank you Very Much!
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Hahaha, I shouldn't have, but I laughed at that :) I like the way you wrote that up, I could visualize you sweating over it and racking your brain for ideas to fix it. Good on you for not giving up!
Hahaha, thanks for dropping by, and I would not dare give up on trying to fix that thing, otherwise I'm dead meat.