Using a Cheater

You're about to learn something about drain snake repair, but I'm sure it's a lesson which can be equitably applied to any and all repairs, whether at work or in the household.

The SC-10-A drive shaft on an Electric Eel Model C is held in place with (2) 5/16 allen screws. Most of the time they come loose fairly easily. Yet as all things made by human hands, things don't always go according to plan. In the case of these screws, they sometimes seize. They insolently will not come out. When that happens you either heat them with a torch in an attempt to coax them out, or do what I do. Put a length of pipe over the top of the allen wrench, a 'cheater' as me Pops taught me, to give you greater leverage turning the wrench.

Now, I know there is a school of thought that you should never ever, ever use a cheater bar. Well, me Grandpa Joe and me Pops both believed in them, so I believe in them. So there.

Anyways, you turn the wrench with the cheater, increasing pressure as you go, and one of three things will happen. You will either (A) break the allen wrench, (B) strip the allen head on the screw, or (C) you will hear a tiny but sharp little 'ting' exactly as the wrench turns suddenly. That ting is either good or bad. But usually, it's good. Usually it means that screw has broken loose and you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Your job will soon be over.

The good bad ting. Listen for it when you do your own repairs. And don't be afraid to use a cheater.

Once More Unto The Breach

Do you remember when I lamented folks who have several screws loose? Why, it was only a few days ago.  I asked, how can they not see screws out in the open coming loose?

Someone apparently read that and said, hold my beer. 

A man came into the Shop yesterday, I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name, asking if I could reinstall the caster on the front of his drain machine. "Sure. Bring it in, Cloyce."

A minute later Cloyce was back in my door, dragging the machine along behind him. He stopped it just inside and handed me a perfectly fine wheel. "I don't know how it came off, Cosgriff."

Let's see. Exactly where it should mount on the base of the unit were four empty, threaded holes. Empty, completely undamaged holes, the 1/4-20 threads pristine. They would not require re-tapping. No pieces of broken bolt were evident, as you might expect if, say, a machine had been hit or dropped. No bent frame, no residue of the old bolts having been ripped out. Just four open holes where the wheel attached. And Cloyce didn't know how it happened, how that wheel could have come off.

I held the caster in place with one hand as I started four new bolts with the other before tightening them with a screwdriver. "What do I owe you Cosgriff?" he asked, a look of genuine fear and dread in his voice, as though it had been a truly difficult and time consuming job.

"Oh, nothing, Cloyce, we do enough business." What can I say? I felt generous.

You would have thought I had rescued him from the jaws of Hell by the growing look of pure joy on his face. "Oh, thank you, thank you, Cosgriff!" he exclaimed, gripping my hand and shaking it fiercely, he was so excited. "I don't what I would have done without you!"

Uh, maybe go to any hardware anywhere and spend 75 cents on common bolts and lock washers? You might have also gotten a standard flathead screwdriver for installation purposes and perhaps leave that in your toolbox in case it might ever be needed again.

I was cool yesterday, Cloyce. But next time it'll cost ya. Not that he would learn anything from it.