Freezing parts

[Desoto61]

Thought up a neat little trick for separating tight parts apart that seemed to work.

I was tearing the winch for my PW apart and needed to remove the two key pins from the shaft. The first came out with a pair of vice grips and a mallet, but the second put up a big more of a fight. I figured if I could freeze the pin it might shrink enough to loosen up and come out with the vice grips.

So I got a can of electronics dusting spray (the cans of "air" for blowing out computer cases and similar). It's stored in the can as a liquid, so if you turn it upside down the liquid comes out and flashes to gas, freezing the surface it hits.



About 30 seconds of spraying the key and a little more work with the mallet and vice-grips and it came loose. With the little tube you can get fairly precise with the spray too. Maybe I just got lucky but I figure it didn't hurt.

[74w300uteline]

Maybe

Maybe the dust was holding it in!!
Sorry couldn't resist

[W_A_Watson_II]

They now make a freeze product that chills the items and sprays a lite lubricant, can't remember the brands. Used it for the first time this past week, but my lug nuts were stuck way to tight for anything to help.

[maineSS]

I'm going to try freezing the bearing race in my braden winch retainers- you can't get a straight-on shot with a punch at the edge of the race. I bought two different products- one is a 4 oz can for $9.95 (Gasp!) for electronic component chilling down to -60 deg, the other is the same used by Desoto. I suspect they might be the same stuff internally- we'll just have to have a "Freeze-Off" and see!

[Desoto61]

Those were a bear to get out. I mushroomed the end of my drift doing them. I started with a flat chisel bit to get a better bite of the edge, then after I got it to move a little I went ahead and switched to the regular drift for some better bite.

[mdvberg]

-109 Degree Solution

If you have a small part that you can "dunk" in a container, you can mix 90% isopropyl alcohol and dry ice. The alcohol gets so cold that it turns into a -109 degree gel. I dump a bunch of dry ice in an insulated container, and then slowly add the isopropyl alcohol. The nice thing is that once you have a batch of the stuff at "steady state" it will stay cold for several hours until all the dry ice has evaporated. After you are done the isopropyl can be saved for future use.

P.S. 90% isopropyl is highly flammable, so take suitable precautions!

[maineSS]

Is this gel brushable- if it could be picked up on a bristle-type brush and spread onto parts, that would be quite useful.

I sprayed the bearing race in the winch retainer til it "crackled", then put it face down in a large vice with the jaws spread. I then held a mini "cat's paw" in the recess between the race and retainer, while a friend used a hammer and drift to knock the "cat's paw" downward. Hold it wrong, and your fingers will ring! You need to keep the tail of the cat's paw against the bottom of the vice so it doesn't rotate when hit. We rotated the retainer 180 deg between hits, and kept freezing the race til we got it far enough down to use a normal drift punch. Both the special freeze spray and the upside down use of the blowoff spray seemed to work equally well- they're likely the same.

[mdvberg]

Yes, you could pick it up with a brush, but it will not stay in a gel form for long, as it will heat up quickly on whatever you put it onto. You could keep dripping it onto your part to cool it. It shouldn't leave any residue, as the alcohol will just evaporate eventually.

[mannyc]

bearing race removal

saw the posts about freezing parts. one of the best ways to remove a race from a component is to weld in a staggered pattern around the inside of the race. as the weld cools, it contrasts and shrinks the race. i have seen stubborn hub races fall out after this treatment. no beating required, they just fell out. try it. thanks bob stahl

[Gordon Maney]

If you have a small part that you can "dunk" in a container, you can mix 90% isopropyl alcohol and dry ice. The alcohol gets so cold that it turns into a -109 degree gel. I dump a bunch of dry ice in an insulated container, and then slowly add the isopropyl alcohol. The nice thing is that once you have a batch of the stuff at "steady state" it will stay cold for several hours until all the dry ice has evaporated. After you are done the isopropyl can be saved for future use.

P.S. 90% isopropyl is highly flammable, so take suitable precautions!

Interesting....

[Russ Erickson]

Freezing parts

Hope I don't freeze any parts off this winter - it's already got to 0 F.

Really neat trick with the dry ice and alcohol - I'll have to try that sometime, but my thermometer won't read that low.