Shortening a bolt

[CornishPete]

Hi, anyone have any ideas what's the best way to shorten a bolt and then make good the thread afterwards?

 

[Bornfree]

extend the thread before you cut it.

 

[My Old Landy]

Hi, anyone have any ideas what's the best way to shorten a bolt and then make good the thread afterwards?

A hacksaw and a threading die. Also, it depends on the bolt (tensile strength) etc. Metric or Imperial?

 

[Misterg]

Thread a couple of nuts onto the bit of bolt you want to keep & lock them together. Hold the bolt in a vice by the locked nuts while you hacksaw it to length. File / grind a chamfer on the cut end then screw the nuts off to clean the threads on the cut end.

 

[Am333rcr]

put nut on bolt. cut with hacksaw. freshen up thread if required with a file. take nut off. this ia what i do

 

[Hood]

Slitting disc, go around the full circumference before you chop right through then bevel with a flap disc or at a push carefully with the slitting disc.

 

[atomant48]

I got a little attachment that goes in a slow drill and re-chamfers the end kind of like a cone with 3 blades on the inside. I was suspicious but it works a treat. I only got it for the stainless bolts on my decking as they tend to gall very very easily if the threads are at all damaged.

 

[Screwdriver]

Depends entirely on what tools you have at your disposal. Clearly, if you have a lathe, use a lathe. So one assumes you don't have one of those, what else don't you have?

On a more practical note, if you have a pillar drill, fix the bolt in the chuck and chop off the end with an angle grinder.

 

[pedrobedro]

I put a nut on before I cut then grind a kind of chamfer on the end of the thread before removing the nut to clean up. You could use a file to make the chamfer.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Just fit it to what ever it needs fitting too.
Do the nut up.
Chop off the excess.

 

[steveo3002]

fit a spare nut before cutting , dress the cut end with a file then wind the nut off , you may see a little burr so tickle that with the file and done

 

[hotponyshoes]

This is one hell of a useful tool if you have loads to do.

Search results for: 'hikoki cl18dsljjz 18v stud cutter'

www.howetools.co.uk

I expect you could copy the cutter part and use it in a vice or press if you had enough of them to cut to be worth it

 

[Munkul]

slitting disc, followed by a quick little bevel/chamfer around the thread with a flap disc.

I gave up running nuts on them years ago when I realised I could just run a nice chamfer.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I always cut them square off with a slit disc (locked nuts as a guide on bigger stuff) ....then file flat....then dress the edges a little if needed. That's how I was taught to do them....

 

[Dcal]

Just as @Munkul says.

Only thing I’d add is, when you are doing the chamfer, grind the bolt away from the threads.
If you grind the other way, you can smear metal over the next thread and it’s harder to start the nut.

On big bolts / nuts give the nut a tap after it’s on a few turns to reform the threads.

 

[not done it yet]

Just fit it to what ever it needs fitting too.
Do the nut up.
Chop off the excess.

Not very handy if the bolt happens to be screwed in a blind hole or is fitted somewhere with accessibility restrictions?


If not much too come off, the linisher. If it needs to look original, the lathe. If rough and out of sight, any of the reasonable suggestions, including the angle grinder option after fitting.

 

[Maker]

put nut on bolt. cut with hacksaw. freshen up thread if required with a file. take nut off. this ia what i do

That's what I was taught, it's rare I actually bother though. Usually just cut it, clean with a file or grinder and hope the nut fits on afterwards.

 

[MoreWellie]

Buy more the right length, no matter how many boxes of bolts you buy you will always need one a different length/head/size/material though

 

[8ob]

Those chamfer tools are good for dressing the end of a cut down bolt

 

[Gragson]

Wouldn't be without it since you posted on it No need to dress with a die after