Broken Spoke Removal

[NimbleParticipant @nimble]

[NimbleParticipant @nimble]

Any advice please, on how to remove 3mm stainless steel broken spokes from a bronze hub, off a Penny Farthing bicycle. Those that can be,o have had slots or drilled to take easi outs and removed. The others are proving more difficult.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

If you can get it up onto a vertical mill a centre cutting carbide end mill should do the deed by cleanly removing the core leaving the thread behind as a sort of spring shape for you to pick out. 3 or 5 flute ones can be found. I used a 5 flute one to shift 4 (I think) broken 2.5 mm taps. Lost a flute on the last one but still finished the job. £5 or so to save many hours of work seemed a bargain. Stainless should be easy in comparison.

Down at those small sizes HSS needs a bit too much babying to keep the cutter in one piece especially with dissimilar materials getting in on the act should a bit of run out occur.

Clive

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Hi Nimble,

bronze and most stainless steels have very different coefficients of expansion, A few cycles of a modest degree of heat might help break any fretting between spoke and hub that is causing them to stick. You will, of course, have to take care not to overheat the hub.

Neil

[Author]

Posts