How do I remove pencil anode remains from the bronze nut?

vas

vas

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hello all,

title says it all really!

I've got IVECOs which use 12mm dia (10mm on the nut side) anodes around 40mm long.
Can get them cheap (as in 3euro a piece iirc) from a fabricator in Athens, but I've got lots of nuts with leftovers that are a bitch to remove.
Am I missing something (other than buying new anodes on nuts!) is there an easy way to remove/dissolve/whatever the old zinc anodes?
Tried a bench drill, made a mess out of it as it went eversoslightly off centre and scrapped the nut.
I'd probably do a nice job on a lathe, but I doubt the forum manmath masters could help me justify a lathe for turning 4 anodes a year...
(of course I can always go to Vangellis my machinist for it, but he'll have me waiting for a couple of months to do such a silly thing!)

any ideas?

cheers

V.
 
Ive made some moulds for anodes out of aluminium for a guy producing anodes. Point being the melting temperature must be lower than ali which is quite low. I don't know the melting temperature of bronze, i guess your nuts are ali bronze.
Try a blow torch?
 
colhel said:
Ive made some moulds for anodes out of aluminium for a guy producing anodes. Point being the melting temperature must be lower than ali which is quite low. I don't know the melting temperature of bronze, i guess your nuts are ali bronze.
Try a blow torch?
Click to expand...

Lon nan Gruagach said:
Could you drill a tiny hole and wind a self tapper into it?
Click to expand...

nice ideas!

thanks gents, will try them out
Will probably end up with a combo, self taper on the zinc, plus heat to ease the thing out as I doubt a self taper, a vice and a hammer will do the trick ;)

cheers

V.
 
Vas, I had to drill one of the pencil anodes out on Rafiki. Not hard, just needs a pillar drill. The bronze cap nut was then perfectly usable for the replacement anode.
 
I changed the pencil anode in the seawater air heat e changer in the geny recently.
Just like a car rad a top hose and bottom with the pencil at the bottom too .
It too was down to the nut level .
The HCL est 33 % I pumped through for 10 mins to acid flush cleaned out the remains of the zinc in the bolt .
Paid €22 for a complete new one ,bolt with zinc 3cm x 10 mm dia -est ? allready fitted , it’s actually a Onan part or the package was

The worry of buying a zinc rod ,cutting a piece off and then stuffing into your old bolt ,is it may come out as it dissolves and then move around the system ,potentially leading to further issues .

.
 
thanks guys!

3 caps cleaned on a small pot with 33% HCL (the one for swimming pools) . Lots of fizzing, getting slightly hot, and half an hour later all anode was gone, leaving an nice and clean nut.

cheers

V.
 
vas said:
hello all,

title says it all really!

I've got IVECOs which use 12mm dia (10mm on the nut side) anodes around 40mm long.
Can get them cheap (as in 3euro a piece iirc) from a fabricator in Athens, but I've got lots of nuts with leftovers that are a bitch to remove.
Am I missing something (other than buying new anodes on nuts!) is there an easy way to remove/dissolve/whatever the old zinc anodes?
Tried a bench drill, made a mess out of it as it went eversoslightly off centre and scrapped the nut.
I'd probably do a nice job on a lathe, but I doubt the forum manmath masters could help me justify a lathe for turning 4 anodes a year...
(of course I can always go to Vangellis my machinist for it, but he'll have me waiting for a couple of months to do such a silly thing!)

any ideas?

cheers

V.
Click to expand...

I drill mine out .5mm under size & press new anode in
 
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