Drill Removal

That's great to hear, and thanks for letting us know of the success. :encourage: Did you heat the solution or just use it at room temperature?

-frank
 
You can get alum just about anywhere. Walmart carries it. It is used for preserving food.

David
 
You don't remember the three stoogies. They used it in a punch drink for a bridge party . It's a lip puckerer ,also used to be used by women as a female cleaner . YUPP I ain't saying.
 
Barbers used to use an alum stick to stop razor nicks from bleeding. Didn't know it does taps too. Good to know, thanks.
 
I'd like to learn more about this process, having just recently broken a 4-40 tap in a cast iron mini-mill base. Fortunately, the power feed safety stop switch I was mounting could be relocated. Why doesn't the Alum also dissolve the surrounding material holding the broken bit or tap? What kinds of metals will Alum dissolve or not dissolve? I've never seen what happened to that tap happen before. It was a spiral flute tap (it's all I use once I discovered them!) and it was going in fairly easily with lubricant, held straight with a tap guide block. After several turns I decided to back out and clean out the tap so I could proceed deeper. When I tried to turn it in reverse, it bound up, and while very gently twisting it back and forth to try to free it up it snapped off. First one I can remember breaking during removal. I'm thinking the casting may have had some impurities in that spot.
 
I believe the Alum trick only works if the item to be removed is ferrous and it is in non-ferrous material.

David
 
Tried it once and it did not work, figured tap might have been slightly different recipe. Simmered on wood stove for a week with a saturated solution.
 
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