Keel bolt #3 - Last mile

I have finished drilling - it led to nothing meaningful, with so slow progress it would take weeks to go through 20 cm of the remaining bolt.

Having now nice cone left after drill in the bolt’s top surface I could hammer it back down through deadwood without risking much that it will “mushroom”. Drilled cone on top should instead make the bolt collapse into itself under hammering.

To check if the bolt will move at all I hit it hard with a heavy hammer. After four deafening blows it started to move down, with each blow it went easier. Good sign - seems that all this iron oxide slug has been compressed to form a bottleneck and now I’m moving away from it onto more clear channel.

To guide the long, 12mm diameter bolt which I will use for hammering the keel bolt I’ve made a quick & dirty wooden jig.

Two wide wooden blocks are drilled through with 14mm drill to accommodate 12mm pushing rod.

On the boat I’ve made temporary floor and connected the jig to it, to stabilise everything for heavy hammering.

The jig is a 2-part construction. After I hammer the bolt deep enough to reach the top wooden timber I will remove the wood and continue while having the bottom timber protecting the rod from buckling and guiding it straight onto the stubborn keel bolt #3.

A few heavy blows have put down the keel bolt to its original position. I hammered it further down to reach the bottom of the keel pocket.

To cut the bolt I planned to use acetylene burner. While it is possible to melt steel with this tool it prove to be dangerous in current conditions - after reaching melting temperature and as the steel started to drop from bolt threads the condensation which has built around the bolt, in keel pocket, started to drop onto the white-hot metal causing explosions of sparks and melted steel.

I switched to mechanical methods - drilled a hole through the extruding bolt, enlarging the diameter until the bolt has split with 12mm drill bit. Remaining pat I was able to easily break by fatiguing the steel.

Bottom part of keel bolt has been cut away

Probably due to excessive heat the bolt is now moving almost freely in the hole so, without hammering, I was able to get down next portion of the keel bolt.

If I had reciprocating saw would this be a piece of cake but - as I don’t own this tool (yet) there will be some elbow grease needed to saw manually or drill away the remaining bits, as they drop down into keel pocket.

But at least things are progressing in the right direction.

Once I’m done with this bolt I will cast lead plugs to close keel pockets after installation of new keel bolts.

The remaining bolts will wait until I do deadwood replacement - probably next season.