In my search to find a way to to refurbish hard-to-find pricker needles I came across this article: Dissolve Steel Drill Bits In Alum From The Grocery I have not tried it yet but it does sound promising. Thoughts, anyone?
Intresting. I could have used this a few weeks ago. Instead this is how I dealt with a broken needle on a stove. https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/my-toughest-fettle-yet.46776/
I've been a amateur machinist for years, restoring antique stationary engines and thought I knew just about every trick in the book............but this is a new one! I know it will come in handy in the future. Thank you!
This works, the time it takes depends on the size of the piece to be dissolved and the composition of the steel. If it will rust then it’ll probably work.
Old Post update Recently I needed to replace the vent stud on a late model Austramax Lantern. The stud had a broken sel-lock pin that had badly damaged the threads.. I made a new stud and was drilling a 1/16" hole for the sel-lock pin when the drill snapped in the hole. I remembered this post and decided to give ALUM a try. I used Aluminium Sulphate at the rate of one table spoon to 100ml of water. I used an ethanol burner in a can to keep the liquid simmering. Here you can see bubbles rising from the drill tip in the hole. After an hour simmering the corroded drill tip fell out. The brass was not affected. Success.
A brilliant old remedy. I use it when bolts/studs shear in-situ in aluminium and I want to dissolve the steel part out without any risk of damaging threaded sections etc. Sometimes I drill the steel portion out (if I can get into it) so that there's next to no material left and let the Alum do its business. Well done on the drill removal! Alec.
Working with Land Rovers and Rover V8 engines in particular, you learn all the aluminium work-around tricks Alec
