Removed Old Mooring Shackles

rwoofer

rwoofer

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Title should say "Removing Old Mooring Shackles?"

Moved my boat to new pile moorings. I have to supply my own lines so went their early in the tender to lift and chop off old lines and install new lines with new shackles.

Turns out there are 3 extra large shackles now from previous mooring holders which seem to weigh the pile rings down a lot. The pins are seized solid, about 1 inch in diameter so wondering how I can take them off. Any ideas?
 
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It's going to be difficult - which I guess is why theory are still there.
At that size, all but the very largest bolt croppers are going to struggle.... hit them hard!!! maybe a portable oxy-aceteline or an angle grinder and a generator.

You could try feeding them with penetrating oil, but I just feel you would be wasting your time.
 
I'm always surprised when a seemingly solid rusted up shackle starts moving

The secret is to put some serious twisting moment on the pin by means of crowbar and stilsons or similar and at the same time whack the threaded part of the shackle repeatedly with a club or if really large, a sledge hammer.

With a large shackle its a 2 man job and it's often difficult to get the thing into a suitable position to put serious pressure on the pin, but perseverance usually succeeds

Plank
 
Galvanised shackles generally seem to be quite soft steel (or perhaps I'm just buying rubbish ones?). So a new hacksaw blade of reasonable quality ought to go through them without too much difficulty.

Obviously an angle grinder as suggested by others will be even less effort, if you can arrange it.

Pete
 
two hammers, use one as an anvil, give a good bashing all around the two shank ends. then Stilson applied and heavy but steady pressure not a jerking action and should undo.
If not try again this time with more vigour.

if not stop for tea, then cut with your preferred action. :encouragement::encouragement:
 
We had to do this when we moved to a pile mooring a few years ago. Tried stilsons, hammer, oil etc but it's very difficult when you are doing it hanging out the tender but bought some decent hacksaw blades and although it took a bit of time it was relatively easy and much less hard work to saw through them.
 
prv said:
Galvanised shackles generally seem to be quite soft steel (or perhaps I'm just buying rubbish ones?). So a new hacksaw blade of reasonable quality ought to go through them without too much difficulty.

Obviously an angle grinder as suggested by others will be even less effort, if you can arrange it.

Pete
Click to expand...

Agreed. I had to hacksaw two 16mm shackles last year and, whilst my arm ached afterwards, I was surprised how easy it was.
 
As others, I will be doing this from a wobbly tender, which rules out angle grinder etc. I had already tried hammer and lever with no success, so maybe I will just have to try with a hacksaw!

Can you get cutting disc bits for cordless drills?

I tried searching on google for that, but with no luck..
 
A moorings contractor would have oxy-acetylene or propane cutting gear if you ask him to do this.
If I were determined to do this myself I would use an blowlamp on it. Heat it up and undo (hopefully)
 
rb_stretch said:
Title should say "Removing Old Mooring Shackles?"

Moved my boat to new pile moorings. I have to supply my own lines so went their early in the tender to lift and chop off old lines and install new lines with new shackles.

Turns out there are 3 extra large shackles now from previous mooring holders which seem to weigh the pile rings down a lot. The pins are seized solid, about 1 inch in diameter so wondering how I can take them off. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Easy to do - never fails method explained to me by an old engineer at work. Two decent sized hammers and simultaneously hit both sides of the seized bit where the pin goes through the shackle. Might need a few good blows but what it does is break the rust where the thread is seized.

In 20 years of hyaving this issue with the 4 anchor shackles on my mooring, I have never failed.
 
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PlankWalker said:
I'm always surprised when a seemingly solid rusted up shackle starts moving

The secret is to put some serious twisting moment on the pin by means of crowbar and stilsons or similar and at the same time whack the threaded part of the shackle repeatedly with a club or if really large, a sledge hammer.

With a large shackle its a 2 man job and it's often difficult to get the thing into a suitable position to put serious pressure on the pin, but perseverance usually succeeds

Plank
Click to expand...

Agreed stilsons and a long crow bar to lever against will almost certainly work, certainly I have changed substantial shackles underwater this way. But doing that hanging out of a dinghy is never easy, and if it's not possible I'd be paying a contractor to do it for me.
 
As others have mentioned, it's a grubby, wet and tiring job from a dinghy. I managed after a while by fastening the hacksaw/blade THROUGH the shackle and inverted in the hacksaw frame, addressing the inside of the shackle pin at each end. It helped to have a colleague keep tension on the shackle while I was sawing. This technique broke a couple of new blades as they got under one's feet in the dinghy.....
 
One question is what type of shackle?
images

You MAY get away with hitting the nut firmly with a hammer to undo it. Or pair of Stiltons you would be surprised how rusted a nut will turn.
or
images

You are in for more of a problem as its easy to sheer the end off.

The other tool that you may have that you might of over looked is a jigsaw, a good metal blade if you can fix the shackle appropriate might make easy work of it... Also think where on the shackle you are cutting, so that you do not need to cut it twice if the pin does not move.

Another thought is if they are sound why not use them to attach your ropes to?
 
They are all the second type of shackle. I looked at HSS and I could hire a cordless angle grinder for less than £20 so very tempted to try that if hacksawing proves too difficult.
 
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