I go into this weekend with what I pray will be my last task involving self-torture. It involves removing the two snapped screws on the worktable that are used to hold the table insert in place.
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The "correct fix" it to drill out the broken fastener and use a thread chasing tap (aka thread cleaning tap) to clean out the old threads that remain in the hole thus exposing the original threaded hole. Since I don't have thread chasing taps, I'll use a standard thread cutting tap. From a purist standpoint, a threaded hole should only have a thread cutting tap run through it ONCE. Running it through more than that cuts and removes additional material that can compromise the pullout / stripping force of the hole. Since this application is only to hold a table insert in place, it doesn't matter!!! It ain't rocket science.
For those following my previous snapped screw adventures first shown in this post, the problem I had when originally starting the pilot hole was getting the pilot hole centered. I had eyeballed the center...quite accurately I thought. If the pilot hole isn't centered darn near perfect, running the tap through gets really funky since it will be cutting new threads on one side and leaving old fastener material in the other side while cutting new threads into the left over fastener material.
The second attempt used the geometry method shown in this thread which resulted in pretty good hole placement as shown in this post but the method was crazy time consuming.
This time to find the center, I am going to use the hinge bit drill set that a contractor told me about. They're designed for use when drilling door hinge holes. For them to work, they need to pickup a countersunk hole to get a center referenced correctly. Since the table insert has countersunk holes, it should work fine. I'm afraid however that there might be way too much slop in the table insert though hole and it may require some brain work / mods prior to drilling. We'll see. I picked up a set of 3 hinge bit drills at Harbor Freight for $5.99. (awesome price as usual). These things can be VERY pricey elsewhere.....$10 each. If they last me long enough to get these two holes done, they will have paid for themselves. If not, they'll get returned.
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Wish me luck.....I'm due for a slam dunker sometimes here.
I just thought of this. The threaded holes in the worktable that are used to mount the table insert are left of center (liberals / progressives). Do they have to be for any application reason?? If not, if I run into issues drilling out and re-tapping the original holes, I could always just put in new holes that are on the right of center (effectively turning them into conservatives) and just flip the table insert 180 degree.:confused:
