Jr Hill

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:Thanks for your patience, everyone. Here's a photo of the hydrant's current state.



I think I have to do something about this, this week. I suspect I'll be suggesting we replace the hydrant.

Using a 9/64 drill bit and a lot of patience with no small amount of good fortune you can drill though from the opposite side and using a 1/8" drift punch, tap the broken 'easy out' out of the screw. Your picture shows exactly what I mentioned in an earlier post about how hard it is to drill into the center of a broken screw. One of the things that happens with an easy-out is that as the tool feeds onto the broken screw it expands the screw making it even more impossible to start turning it. Screw extractors don't work so good on fasteners that are corroded into place. Wouldn't you agree?

At this point you can just plan on drilling the broken fastener out completely step by step and ending at 5/16 which you can then use your tap set to make the locking bolt 3/8-16. You'll need both a starting tap and a bottoming tap so the threads go deep enough. Or you can braze a nut onto the cast iron. What is left of the brass stem will depend on the amount of good fortune you have. You will have to 'build up the damaged section of the brass stem and dress it back to round again with a file and yet more patience without damaging the stem where the packing is or you have a forever spurting leak. Frankly you might just save the old hydrant for parts. This whole thing has gone past a 'grudge match' but I appreciate your tenacity.

You might guess that I am a Journeyman Machinist. And I have the tools. And I have done a lot of this kind of stuff but mainly for myself because nobody could justify the cost to pay for the work. Even for my own DIY, the good fortune thing is always big part of it.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Jr Hill wrote:After all the above just get your shovel out at the ready with a replacement hydrant. The head of the bolt twisted off because it was seized. So other than drilling it out and peeling the threaded remains out - and you'd better be pretty good to go right down the center of the broken fastener, best fortune to you. So many times someone doesn't go down the center of the broken bolt but goes to one side or goes crooked. Maybe even breaking the bit. Reread the first sentence. Oh yeah, and your water will be shut down or a geyser spouting if you fail.

Can you spot the center of a broken fastener. Most can't. Fewer can drill it out successfully.

Well you may ultimately be right. But I think it's more interesting to try to repair things. Even if I fail I will have expanded my knowledge a little.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I repair EVERYTHING, even when I shouldn't. It's a joy in life for me to troubleshoot and successfully fix things I've never worked on before without a manual or wasting time on a darned YouTube video. I wish you the best.

Oh, and lastly, it's the perfect opportunity to justify another tool for the next time! (wink)

After all the above just get your shovel out at the ready with a replacement hydrant. The head of the bolt twisted off because it was seized. So other than drilling it out and peeling the threaded remains out - and you'd better be pretty good to go right down the center of the broken fastener, best fortune to you. So many times someone doesn't go down the center of the broken bolt but goes to one side or goes crooked. Maybe even breaking the bit. Reread the first sentence. Oh yeah, and your water will be shut down or a geyser spouting if you fail.

Can you spot the center of a broken fastener. Most can't. Fewer can drill it out successfully.

Garlic. The more the better.

Cole Tyler wrote:My dog gets at least a dozen a year (mostly young/babies) she has great hearing and smell. It's a little rough on the gardens tho when she digs.

Yup. We have Bubba. No more than two strokes with those clam diggers will get most voles. It's hilarious if you notice him just staring at the ground. Nose in place and ears tilted. Then comes 'The Paw'. Here he is guarding his beloved raw asparagus stumps. A wish person does not try to steal asparagus stumps from his bowl.

All of a sudden I'm hungry for hot off the stove fried chicken. My wife makes excellent fried chicken but darn it always makes a mess. Then there is all the leftover oil that won't keep until the next time around. So we just get it at the grocery store deli, darn it.

One could take this topic two ways. 1) The garden consists of forest and, 2) The garden is IN the forest. We do both.

#1 Is 160 acres of timber consisting of Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir and Oregon Oak. That 'garden' tree maintenance consists of wild fire maintenance like upkeeping the understory cleaned. And dealing with dead standing and fallen never ends and it's mainly the PPine. Don't go off on bugs here. The lesson is we will never get finished with the place - so we eat the dinosaur one bite at a time. And we have planted some fruit trees. After 8 years half are still alive but just don't throw fruit. They have a tough life. We don't live in plains. The elevation and weather patterns change profoundly in 1/4 mile.

#2 We have an official garden where we plant tomatoes and all the other stuff. Every year during the normal drought season the word goes out through the forest because we have the only green ANYTHING for miles, so they invade like... well I don't want to get political. You ought to see our garden - it looks like a prison complex - all sides and the top with chicken wire and 2' up the sides with 1/4" welded fabric. It only takes the field mice to eat one bite out of every maturing fruit to make a mess. And still some ground squirrels get into the garden. We will use wounded fruit - it's still better than Safeway.

So if I have anything to suggest for a forest vege garden is it's going to be a continual us against them thing. I'm sorry to say the hungry forest critters will win - every time. They spend their whole life defeating your best efforts. And their are way more of them than you. Seriously, what else would they do, they're hungry.

For the garden of a forest: A good chainsaw, a commercial lopper, equipment stronger than any logs you have to pull and a LOT of time.

A few years ago I took Amtrak from a nearby little town to MT and back again. It would've been a beautiful trip but unfortunately over night in both directions. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.