Acetylene torch bad practice?

[00S4Boy]

I honestly cannot believe some of the comments or suggestions in this thread, who honestly in here is a flat rate mechanic? no one.

Nut splitters taking tie rods off is something no flat rate tech would ever do. Heat it spin it, toss some water on it do your alignment tighten it be done.

 

[firebox40dash5]

I honestly cannot believe some of the comments or suggestions in this thread, who honestly in here is a flat rate mechanic? no one.

*raises hand*

Then again, I'm taking the hot wrench's side in this one. I don't even dunk stuff to cool it off if I can avoid it, I prefer to just work with MIG gloves, Vise Grips, and Channellocks. If I need to cool something from nuclear to just skin-roasting, I use PB.

 

[GTA Matt]

I honestly cannot believe some of the comments or suggestions in this thread, who honestly in here is a flat rate mechanic? no one.

Nut splitters taking tie rods off is something no flat rate tech would ever do. Heat it spin it, toss some water on it do your alignment tighten it be done.

Lol, flat rate, done thousands of alignments, needed the torch many times. I've been quiet on most of the comments. Only bad part about heating the tie rods is waiting for the parts to contract back to size at room temperature so you can do an accurate alignment (wet shop rag wrapped around the tie rod speeds it up). The only technique that will break a jam nut free is heat. I do have an air hammer bit that is designed to rattle the inner and outer tie rod ends free AFTER the jam nut is loose that is pretty effective.

 

[joebachor]

torch it. the tie rod will still be strong enough to do its job after the heat.

 

[Chuck122]

I think that the most accurate answer is that it depends on the alloy and the technique used.

 

[Ruger_556]

Use a torch... Shop time is $130 an hour and they get upset if you spend an hour on one stuck bolt

 

[DieselSaves]

On the particular problems being discussed, can the offending parts be reached with a slicer disc on an angle grinder? I try to use the slicer before the torch wherever possible just to limit the possibility of future failure. All our equipment stays here til it dies and that usually takes decades. That and most machinery here has enough oil/straw/grease/hay in the crevices that i feel better about controlling the sparks than sprays of molten metal. Might be apples and oranges, at least the time consumed is similar between processes.