remove broken drill Archives

Using your Metal Disintegrator

How to remove a broken carbide drill

Reference: Removing Carbide Tooling

There are two types of metal disintegrator power supplies. AC machines are built for speed and power. DC power supplies use a lower melting point and work better with carbide materials. Some of our DC-powered models include the 2-SC (portable) and the table model 2-SAC.

Removing carbide tooling with your Electro Arc DC metal disintegrator can be very easy if you follow these simple rules. The process for disintegrating carbide is very different than HSS high-speed steel because of the composition of carbide tooling. Increasing the heat or feed rate will only make the problem worse. With higher heat, the carbide will pool at the bottom of the hole and consume the electrode.

Disintegrating Carbide:
1) Use your “Heat Selector Chart” to select the appropriate electrode size and heat selection.
2) Ensure the part is well grounded.
3) Good coolant flow is critical. 90 psi @120gpm.
4) Use your Current monitoring LEDs’ for the feed.
5) LED’s should never exceed the second Green LED. Any faster will stall the process and consume electrode.

Suggested Electrodes for downhole drill heads with carbide bits

Removing carbide bit(s) from drill heads can be made easy. There are many ways to remove the buttons but only one safe way. Using a torch and pounding on the drill hears can damage the structure and the temper of the material. Disintegrators do neither.

There are two types of metal disintegrator power supplies. AC machines are built for speed and power. DC power supplies use a lower melting point and work better with the carbide materials. You will want to use one of our DC-powered models for a job like this 2-SC (portable) and the table model 2-SAC.

Typically, a hex graphite electrode is used. The electrode is sized to disintegrate near enough to leave a thin shell behind. See the time studies below for a better idea of how long your disintegration job will take. After disintegration, the operator would be able to remove the shell with a hammer and punch. If done correctly, there would be no damage to the hole or thermal distortion to the bit.

When you remove carbide bits from drill heads, the following graphite electrodes are recommended:

To remove a carbide bit:

Save the bit:

Disintegrate the hole using the suggested electrode size. With a hammer and punch, crack the bit shell and remove the remnants to clear the hole.

To save the bit, disintegrate a hole with an inside diameter large enough to leave a thin shell around the bit. Use a hammer and punch to crack the shell and remove the carbide bit.

EDM , Electro Arc Models , Metal Disintegrator Applications , Using your Metal Disintegrator

How to Remove Broken Drill Bit From Metal

Are you wondering what the best way to remove broken drill bits from metals is? Electro Arc has been providing high-quality broken tap, drill, stud, and bolt removal EDM / MDM machines since 1947. Our technology safely removes the broken drill in seconds without causing any damage to your part. Our spark erosion and metal disintegration technology can save you thousands of dollars by not causing damage to expensive parts. Please, take a moment to review how our spark eroders work.

Examples of disintegration with an Electro Arc metal disintegrator

Get the Job Done Right with Electro Arc

Electro Arc’s unique process disintegrates only the center out of a broken tap or drill leaving its threads intact. You can use this process to cut square or round shapes to back out studs or bolts or to remove large studs with a series of cuts. Emboss identification on rolls of steel, bore, and counterbore holes. You can reclaim expensive parts and provide immediate repairs on all types of equipment. Thus you will experience fewer production overruns and late deliveries.

Model 2-SQT for removing broken drills:

Unlimited disintegration potential in a compact, versatile package
For HSS tooling removal
Remove taps, drills, and studs from 0-80 to 2” (24.5 mm) in a single pass
The 36-inch maxi feature provides ultra-rigid support for absolute positioning

See more videos

EDM , Metal Disintegration , Spark Erosion

What are the Many Benefits of a Spark Eroder?

At Electro Arc we know that time is important to you. How often can you get things done faster without sacrificing quality? Not very often. You will find a different experience with Electro Arc’s metal disintegrators (spark eroders). We have been providing the world with the highest quality EDM portable and table top machines since 1947. We are celebrating 75 years of local metal disintegrator production.

SAVE TIME WHEN YOU USE AN ELECTRO ARC METAL DISINTEGRATOR – You can remove broken taps, drills, and bolts in seconds. This doesn’t have to be a long process using a cheap machine that may even not get the job done. Other technology can take up to hours to get done.

SAVE MONEY – When you use an Electro Arc metal disintegrator, you can return to normal operations fast! You will save money that could be lost on downtimes, and salvage expensive parts that can be destroyed using a cheap disintegrator or spark erosion machine, or due to the broken bolt, tap, or dowel. Scrap fewer parts and take advantage of quick problem-solving that lasts for years.
QUALITY – All of our machines are made to order, 50-65% of the parts are machined right here in our shop. Every machine is assembled and tested here in Dexter, Michigan. you can count on faster, more efficient, and the most cost-effective method to remove broken tools, studs, taps, bolts, drills or fasteners. These machines leave the hole intact which will minimize damage to expensive parts.
DURABILITY – Electro Arcs’ reputation precedes us. Our machines are built to last, we have customers using machines that are 40+ years old! Our machines stand up to the rough environment of shops, factories, production facilities, and outdoor use in mines, on off-road machinery, and in military applications.
SUPPORT – We have logs of every machine we have ever sold. If we made it, we repair it. We sell accessories including molybdenum electrodes (also made on-site) to support your machine.

We manufacture DC and AC machines. Our metal disintegrators work well with all hardened metals like High-Speed steel tooling. Our portable machines are versatile and ideal for use in many fields to quickly remove a broken tap, drill, or bolt and continue normal operations. Our DC machines are great for Carbides and soft cast metals.

Electro Arc Models , Metal Disintegrator Applications , Using your Metal Disintegrator

Watch a Broken Drill Removed From Manifold

The following is a transcription of the above video. Please reach out to us here with any questions or concerns.

Hi and welcome to Electro ARC. Today we’re going to be demonstrating our DC direct current output disintegrating transformer which is optimally suited for removing broken carbide tooling. We have a broken 12 mm carbide drill selector. We’ve determined that we need to use a 312,000 electrode to remove the broken carbide drill. The electrode is inserted into the disintegrator head. The machine is equipped with a disintegrator DC head and automatic servo feed, stop and start switches and depth stop. To begin the process i bring my electrode down on the broken tool, drop my splash bag, cover the edges with a rag, and using the start stop switches I begin the process. It tells us that we need 18 up through 9 by 32 in. Our machines can meet the needs of any part size shape or configuration. We’ve gone through and removed some of the loose bits of carbide drill left in the hole and there’s still a little bit of the drill down in the hole that’s not loose yet. So we’re going to take the disintegrator back down and we are still going to go with 1 in increments. As you can see, the head backed out and that’s indicating that we have another loose piece of drill bit, so I can go in there and should be able to rummage around and find it, lets get our head out of the way and then with our compressed air we can clean out the hole and I can see bits of material down in there for us to pick out with some pics and pliers. What we’ve done here is using our pics and and needle nose pliers is bring the chunks of the drill out of the hole and got to the solid drill and using a twisting action removed it from the hole leaving a clean hole undamaged for future use.

View more helpful videos for using your metal disintegrator on our new website for machine owners.

In the above video, Electro Arc’s 2-DVC DC metal disintegrating machine demonstrates the removal of broken carbide tooling. Equipped with our servo head with auto-feed allows for easy remote start and stop. Disintegrate up to 1 1/4 inch diameter in one pass. See more broken bolt removal examples.

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