Removing broken hitch ball?

What, you have no shop vac or DC to play with?

Where else do you install hitch balls?

jsw

(...)

That'd work. Most the time I don't bother though.

My solar powered vent fan clears the room amazingly quickly! Luckily I don't have to use a cut off tool in an enclosed space often.

Grab the disk between thumb and middle finger, hold screw head in place lightly with index finger, spin on the arbor with the other hand. Sheesh!

jsw

You might be surprised. I know of an articulated tractor or two that use a 2" hitch ball and bulldog style coupler for the lower pivots! Also know of at least three boat cranes that are using 2 5/16" balls for the wheel pivots so they can travel rougher ground without problems.

(...)

That'd work if the hole in the middle of the disc were a tiny bit larger than the OD of the screw. I could just drop the threads of the fastener into the disc. Easy!

The discs I purchase have a hole that is somewhat smaller than the OD of the fastener, so it takes two hands just to grind the fastener through the mounting hole. It is a dicey operation because it takes force to drill the fastener through the mounting hole but too much force and the disc shatters into two pieces. It'd be cool to have a jig that holds everything in alignment to make the operation quick and painless.

--Winston

hitch ball and bulldog style coupler for

wheel pivots so they can travel rougher

Plus, they make dandy Christmas tree decorations for 'heavy metal' aficionados.

--Winston

hitch ball and bulldog style coupler for

wheel pivots so they can travel rougher

Dass one helluva sturdy tree, sir!

-- Energy and persistence alter all things. --Benjamin Franklin

OK, cool. (absolutely no pun intended in February)

:]

-- Energy and persistence alter all things. --Benjamin Franklin

If you're good in 3-D, assemble the screw and washer to the disc and power up the die grinder slowly. Now move the screw into mesh with the end of the arbor and HIT IT! It self-tightens.

If you're not good, visually, it will crossthread the arbor and screw like a bitch on steroids and you'll have to replace both. ;)

-- Energy and persistence alter all things. --Benjamin Franklin

Just teasing. I salvaged the handle from a broken snow shovel and attached a hitch ball and bicycle training wheel bracket.

Sounds like the Gothic-horror themed Xmas tree from college. Seems some city kids don't know about the thistle plant, the national emblem of Scotland. Not good to lean against.

jsw

Yeow!

--Winston

Disk with screw through the hole held between thumb and second finger of the left hand with the first finger pushing lightly on the screw head; arbor between right thumb and first finger, bring into position and spin it up snug - no need for the screw driver as the screw will self tighten under load, the screw driver is only used to loosen the screw for removal. YMMV but that's how I've been doing it for close to forty years.

(...)

Upthread, I explain that the screw does not simply drop into the hole in the disc because said hole is too small. Once the screw is in the disc, life becomes very easy indeed.

--Winston

Another use for the (tiny) screwdriver - works well if it is the traditional shape - do the whole batch of disks and be done with it till you buy another batch.

(...)

Upthread, I mentioned that I normally have multiple arbors with discs attached so that I can swap discs quickly when I'm in the middle of a project. That works a treat!

This Just In! I used a loose drill chuck just now as a pin vise to grasp the head of the arbor screw.

Now I can thread the cutting discs on to the screw quickly and easily.

That made my day!

--Winston

I tend to load my discs by laying them on a chunk of wood that has a small hole in it. Set disc over hole, push screw through slide arbor up through hole from other side to catch screw and tighten down a bit.

I also have saw blades, diamond wheels and sanding discs all loaded up as well.When I buy new stuff I usually buy kits so I get some extra arbors for buffing/sanding drums/wheels. One thing I have found with the cutting discs is that if you install a small O-ring or rubber washer on each side they don't break as easily.

The good mandrels come that way, with a cushion washer or two. Also are a close fit on the cutoff disks without needing a whole lot of persuasion to go through the hole. If they don't have a washer, the hole in the disk wallows out, eventually the screw wears at that point and the mandrel becomes useless as well as busting a lot of disks. So be careful with cut-rate mandrels. The ones that usually come with the HF all-up hand grinder accessory sets seem to last OK. I was buying those for like $8 for a 100+ piece set at one time, they want a lot more now. Each had a pile of cutoff wheels plus several mandrels for same as well as a lot of lesser used pieces. They all worked fine with the mini-die grinders. Usually have several of those rigged up at any one time to save time when changing grinding points. A whole lot faster setting one down and picking up another rather than digging out the collet wrenches.

Tip: Punch a hole in each wrench and string some beaded chain between, then you'll have an exact copy of what Foredom has for their collet chucks. No more lost wrenches and they can be hung on a hook on the bench.

Stan