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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
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    Canberra
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    288

    Default Ok I give up - how to get this little key off the shaft?

    The photo shows the collet sleeve off an old D-bit grinder. In it is a key 4mm x 9mm. I've had the unit in the freezer for over a week to try and slightly slacken the fit, but it is still stuck fast.

    You'll see I've now damaged the key a bit by trying to punch it off by the end, and trying to vise-grip it off by the sides. The key will go in the bin once it's off, I'll have to make a new one.

    But how to get it out anyway? I'm now just thinking of carefully filing the key down so I can at least get the sleeve out of the cross-head, then maybe drill and tap what's left of the key to try and pop it out with a screw, or alternatively die-grind the remainder out of the slot.

    Surely though there's a more elegant solution, if I haven't already cashed in my chips by rounding off the projecting edges of the key?

    Deckel S0 collet sleeve - lr.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
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    65
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    Default

    You might have more luck using a diamond point cold chisel but use it on the broad side of the key rather than the end. Just a light tap alternating sides between each tap.
    I have had good success this way.

    Phil

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
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    Melbourne
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    Default

    i would freehand drill and tap it, use a slide hammer with said thread on the end, i usually just gary (bodge) the slide hammer up from whatever is around. coffee mug, lollipop stick etc.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Canberra
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    288

    Default

    Thanks Phil, I would need to buy one. Not cheap though - oddly Blackwoods seems to be cheaper than eBay on this occasion - but still $43 for a 6"x1/2"x1/4" (https://www.blackwoods.com.au/part/0...-point-6x12x14) - is that what you were thinking of?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    Healesville
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    Default

    Grab the end of it with your sidecutters flat against the shaft then squeeze and pivot the handles up.
    shed

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Canberra
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    Default

    Just got to let it cool off back to cold again - I put it in the oven on low heat because after being in the freezer water was condensing all over it. It's quite warm in this wintry Canberra shed though - 10.6 degrees - whew - might take an hour or so.

    Then I'll try the side-cutters first, it's clearly the easiest, then maybe the drill and tap, and if all else fails then head off to the other side of town and get a diamond point chisel.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Canberra
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    Default

    Phil wins. I couldn't find the side-cutters, so I just tried an ordinary steel cold chisel, some tiny thing 6" long from I had somewhere. A few taps on either side with a light hammer and it was out.

    I hadn't even let it cool down. NOW I KNOW!!!

  8. #8
    BobL is online now Member: Blue and white apron brigade
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    7,183

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by shedhappens View Post
    Grab the end of it with your sidecutters flat against the shaft then squeeze and pivot the handles up.
    shed
    I find Nail lifting pincers also work well in this situation.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Gunnaduit View Post
    Phil wins. I couldn't find the side-cutters, so I just tried an ordinary steel cold chisel, some tiny thing 6" long from I had somewhere. A few taps on either side with a light hammer and it was out.

    I hadn't even let it cool down. NOW I KNOW!!!
    Great news

    Phil
    on edit: yep that's the chisel.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Castlemaine
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    244

    Default

    Another good trick is to grab the key in a small grinding vice if you have one.

    Cheers

    Piers

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
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    Default

    A pair of pincers works as well !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    283

    Default

    Sometimes you can put the shaft on a block of hardwood and tap one end of the key INwards. That pivots the other end out.
    Hardwood - so you do not mark the steel shaft, but you support it.
    Tap - a calibrated hit with an engineer's ball peen hammer. Start gently.

    Cheers
    Roger

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alexandra Vic
    Age
    69
    Posts
    654

    Default

    I doubt that the trip to the freezer would help, as that would shrink the spindle and key at similar rates. Doubt that heating would help much either as the spindle is way more massive than the key and in very intimate contact with it. Heat applied to the spindle would expand it, and the key slot, but conduction to the key would cause a similar expansion there in the time it took to get the heat into the spindle due to shear mass of the spindle. Plus there is the chance of distorting the spindle due to uneven heating, or altering material properties dependent upon the heat treatment that the factory would have used in manufacturing the spindle.
    I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
    Posts
    292

    Default

    Good it's out.

    As for the heat/cool stuff the way to do it would be to warm the shaft with a heat gun until hot to the touch and then touched a frozen steel bar on just the key to shrink it. Only thing better would be to cool the bar with dry ice or liquid nitrogen that we all have around.

    Pete

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    central coast NSW
    Posts
    6

    Default Key removal

    Quote Originally Posted by Gunnaduit View Post
    The photo shows the collet sleeve off an old D-bit grinder. In it is a key 4mm x 9mm. I've had the unit in the freezer for over a week to try and slightly slacken the fit, but it is still stuck fast.

    You'll see I've now damaged the key a bit by trying to punch it off by the end, and trying to vise-grip it off by the sides. The key will go in the bin once it's off, I'll have to make a new one.

    But how to get it out anyway? I'm now just thinking of carefully filing the key down so I can at least get the sleeve out of the cross-head, then maybe drill and tap what's left of the key to try and pop it out with a screw, or alternatively die-grind the remainder out of the slot.

    Surely though there's a more elegant solution, if I haven't already cashed in my chips by rounding off the projecting edges of the key?

    Deckel S0 collet sleeve - lr.jpg
    Cut a deep slot with hacksaw in the front of the key nose then fit a screw driver in the slot and lever it out, put a fulcrum under the driver if needed.

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