2006 August 18: Generator (0.25 hours)
Updated:
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So my Sears Craftsman 4 piece Drag Link Socket Set arrived today. Ended up being USD $28.08 delivered to my house. I could have paid the same delivery charge and then had to drive to Sears to pick it up...no one in my area carried it and it was special order only. Enough of my complaining.
I set up my drill press so that the generator body sat in my small drill press vice. No clamping force there, but by sitting in the middle of the clamp it didn't turn when I applied force.
I put the smallest drag link (9⁄16 inch) in my 1⁄2 inch breaker bar and then proceeded to apply downward force with my drill press right on top of the breaker bar. With the downward force applied, I turned the breaker bar. I sheared off the tip of the 9⁄16 inch drag link socket without even budging the screw. Ugh. I didn't have to try hard to do it.
Glad Craftsman has a lifetime warranty on these.
I grabbed the next bigger size drag link (3⁄4 inch). It was too wide to fit in the slot (stuck out on each end). So I used my bench grinder to slowly relieve a bit from each end...keeping the socket cool.
With it narrowed to fit the length of the slot, it was still too thick to fit in the slot. So I ground some off on each side until it just barely fit. Again going slowly and keeping things cool.
Back to the drill press and this time the screws came out easy :> Oh it felt good when they moved. The only thing missing was the hallelujah chorus
and a satisfying crack
when they broke loose. No drama, they just started turning.