Any tips on sorting out two captive nuts at top of Aladdin Blueflame . Two of four have sheared off bolts in.
@Ian Coates welcome to CCS. Pictures would indeed be helpful for someone to give you the best advice. It would also be helpful to know roughly what size the nuts are and the diameter of the sheared off bolts. Are the bolts sheared off below the tops of the nuts or standing proud? Regards John
Sorry about no photos will try tomorrow to take and upload one. I called them bolts but really small threaded screws. They won't be metric but are around 3mm diameter. Hold the hot plate on which locates the chimney in the frame. Probably BSF or UNF threads. It is not a nut as such but a riveted insert which is part of the external frame. Screws are brass judging from broken ends. I could drill them out and replace with 3m screws and standard nut but would like to keep original if possible. Heater stove is Aladdin Series 8 or 15 I believe.
Tried that and hammer to loosen. You'd think brass would not be corroded. I probably will drill out and try to tap for a M3 as from experience the threads usually are gash after because brass never drills easily. As you can see the thread is in a tube rivetted to the frame to form a captive nuts.
@Ian Coates looking at the picture from below you have at least one option you may not have thought of. It looks like the bolt is sticking out of the bottom of the rivetted insert. If that is the case clean up the end of the bolt and fix something like a small nut or similar that will allow you to get a spanner on to it. I've had hit and miss luck using superglue in the past but if you have welding or soldering skills it might be more reliable. Your other problem will be getting replacement screws but if you have the old ones that are not broken off you should be able to work out what you need if you have access to a set of thread pitch gauges which are available in imperial and metric. Regards John
Since it is damaged already. You say "It spins?" EZ-Out. A setup that uses a small drilled hole to remove threaded screws and bolt. Clamp bottom. Drill according to EZ-Out requirements. Insert EZ-Out. Twist anti-clockwise.
How about heating it en then try and drill them out from the bottom end up. Iron expands more then brass, if I'm not mistaken. So applying some heat should free them up a little...
As Ken suggests, I would drill and use EZ out, but do heat it well before twisting on EZ out, and beware that EZ outs are brittle, if it feels like too much torque on a little bitty EZ out, STOP and just drill and tap. You may find as you drill it that the bit simply screws the broken park down and out. Remember, heat is your friend here.
I can get rivnuts in M3 which is what the captive nuts are called. I'm going to take the plunge and have a go with a quality brand new drill bit 2mm. If I'm lucky the steel of the nut will keep the drill on line. In the past I have had poor results drilling out but that was because the bolt was steel in aluminium. Here it's the other way around the screw is soft. If there is enough thread I will clean it up. I think they are BA threads. If not I will replace the rivnuts with new metric It is not going to be concourse I just want the heater for my workshop next winter. Let me thank you all for taking the time to help. It has been my first post on the website and it is very uplifting to know people I have never met want to share their experience with me. I have started a shopping list for missing parts. Flame spreader, wick gallery, mica window and of course new wick. Not too bad for a 50 year old heater as two of those are missing parts.
@Ian Coates I have one of these on the go at the minute too - with exactly the same issue. I applied heat to the sheared bolts and gently tapped them out which worked a treat. My issue is a rusted cage which may or may not have to be scrapped. In terms of wicks you can go to a well-known auction site and pay a lot or there’s a shop in York called Pextons which has a box full in the back… just make sure you quote which one you need as there’s a lot of them in there. Price was about £10 I think. Chris
Cheers for the information. Always good to know of parts sources. I was not familiar with this paraffin stove and all it's various Series. I am now! It is great to share platforms like this where the sum of knowledge far exceeds the individual's. I normally run 3 identical Aladdin heaters with 2 inch wicks. These 3inch Blue Flame certainly put the heat out in comparison.
