Ever mess up a bolt so bad that you're afraid the T-Nut might spin? What do you do? Drill the head out, cut the t-nut, etc. Any tips for when this happens?
how do you remove stuck holds?
(11 posts) (8 voices)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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What i do....
If you can get behind the wall with some vice grips, hammer and a flat head and try and grab ahold of the t-nut while some one is on the other side with wrench in hand.
or
If the holds loose enough on the wall (good size gap between the wall and hold) i cut the bolt in the gap with a hand saw or sawzaw. After the holds off punch the T-Nut through so it doesn't get used again.
or
If the gap isn't big enough i put a long sling behind the hold and have someone pull on the sling while i use a t wrench with pipes on the end for leverage and crank away. (for cross threaded bolts). This works well sometimes but the bad part of it is you can have a hold fly off at you at high speed, fall off a ladder and on the person helping or black eye. So be careful!
or
if nothing works you can leave it which suck or break it (then grind the bolt off the wall) which sucks worse. New holds are pretty damn hard to break so this doesn't really work for new holds. I have been able to take a angel grinder and cut the bolt head off on holds that the bolt holes not set really deep into. Most of the time you have to cut into the hold a little when you do this and the hold will end up looking a little funny and have some sharp edges but...its still functional. Smooth the edges down with the angel grinder once you get it off. Ill take a pic tomorrow morning and post it to get a better understanding.
Hope this helps a little.
I like this topic, it would be good to here what everyone else does. Ive been to other gyms and helped them get some stripped holds off there walls while i was climbing and i learned a few things from them and taught them a thing or two also.
(Like placing a small twrench in the t-nut hole under the hold so when you go behind a wall its easier to find or having walkie talkies so you can communicate better with the other person or tell a volunteer to get you some coffee or beer)
Posted 1 year ago # -
i usually get a claw hammer behind the hold, sit on the handle and crank the hold out with a normal t-wrench. haven't run into one that i can't do this way.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I just crank the bolt counter-clockwise (lefty loosey) until either it comes off or becomes a spinner.
- If it comes off then I mark the t-nut for replacement and move on. We use large white zip-ties that stick through and are easy to spot when behind the walls.
- It it becomes a spinner then I use my angle grinder (with 10" cutting disc) to cut it off, or if it's too tight to the wall I mark it with colored tape and let one of the weekday staff go behind the walls to cut it off.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Prying on the hold to try and get the t-nut to grab is always the first effort. If it spins, get behind the wall with the fore mentioned vice grips or try and drive in a couple of screws to hold the t-nut in place.
The VERY final solution (if there is no hope of getting a grinder or sawzall on the bolt) is to pull the t-nut through the wall. This leaves a 1" hole in the wall that you can patch or build a volume to cover the area. I like using volumes here for the simple reason that I am essentially replacing the blown out t-nut with a volume with extra t-nuts.
Even if you are able to fight a hold off the wall after you have been digging at the plywood with wrenches, screw drivers, claw hammers, and spinning the t-nut around dozens of times, the wood is so chewed up that placing a new t-nut will be a 50/50 proposition.
Posted 1 year ago # -
This it what a few of the Grinded Holds look like after the grind sesh.
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z354/Hoosierheights/DSCN2452.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z354/Hoosierheights/DSCN2451.jpgAnd the very unfortunate breaking of a hold prying with a claw hammer.
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z354/Hoosierheights/DSCN2453.jpg
Posted 1 year ago # -
This is kind of off topic, but I would consider relavent:
Has anyone successfully "fixed" broken holds? Sources out there on the inter-webs have indicated apoxy or bondo. Any success stories?If the hold has broken but not through the bolt hole, is simply sanding down the sharp edges and keep using sufficient? I've seen some suggestoins to sand down the pieces that don't have bolt holes and use them as screw-ons.
My gym has limited budget, as well as vendor constraints so we are looking for ways of still using broken holds.Posted 1 year ago # -
I've used sanded down broken holds before. The smaller ones make great foot jibs, and the bigger ones tend to have really neat features on them. never did use one as a screw on though. Might have to try that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Also, there are a few places where someone fails at cutting the bolt and messes up the wall, so we recently got a couple of the Metolius inside-out holds and cut the standard sized holes around the buggered up wall. First time we've used them and people seem to be responding well to them.
Posted 1 year ago # -
i thought those Metolius inside-out hold looked pretty interesting. Unfortunately we have concrete walls so we won't ever get to use them. :-(
Posted 1 year ago # -
In order to keep your wall from getting fubared, get a piece of sheet metal , about 15"x 15", and cut a notch about 1/2" wide down the center of one side about halfway through. Slot this behind the hold, and sawzall with reckless abandon.
I only bother whipping out the sawzall if i cant easily get behind a panel.
First step is usually the big crowbar (2.5' long or so), cranking behind the hold if theres enough of a gap, trying to hold the tnut in place with backpressure as I unscrew, extra hands are VERY helpful.
If the panel is easily accessible, I might even skip that step, and then get behind the wall with some vice grips. I've got this technique down to a science, by the way........
Cross threaded bolts are the bane of my existence, but it does happen every once and a while.
Posted 12 months ago # -
Think the Metoliuses of inside-outside of the confidence look very interesting.Unfortunately we have concrete wall, consequently we once won'ted start using them.
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