Did I destroy my provari?

[inquiring mind]

Help! Help! Help! I had a vision eternity on my mini provari. It fell and the coil base broke off leaving the thread inside and threaded to the provari. Is there anyway to remove that threaded part from the provari? It destroyed the vision eternity coil base as well. But I am more concerned about the provari. I did look to see if it was possible to purchase just the coil base from the vision eternity, but have had no luck. If anyone knows about a place that does sell just that part, I would really appreciate that as well. Thanks so much for whatever help you can give me. I am so ticked at myself!!!!!

 

[tmcase]

If you have a drill press and a way to secure the provari you could drill a small hole in the broken off connector in the Provari, then screw a left hand screw into the hole and then unscrew that screw and hopefully the broken connector will come out with it.

I can't help you with the vision eternity problem. I'd just buy a new one.

Edit: Changed to left hand screw as Roly recommended.

 

[rolygate]

It's impossible to say what the best method for removing a jammed-in threaded part is, without a close-up photo. However here are 3 ways an engineer would do it (and there are many more):

1. Place the Provari in a vice, in a vertical attitude, with the top of the Provari level with the top of the vice. The vice must have soft jaws, or you can use a sheet of leather or similar wrapped around the Provari.

Take a Dremel with a disc cutter and very carefully cut a slot into the top of the snapped-off 'bolt'. Use a screwdriver to turn the bolt and extract it.

2. Or, take a small drift with a chisel edge (a drift is a metal rod, made from steel, brass or ali depending on the intended use), and a light hammer (4 or 8 oz for this job), and using the drift as a chisel, lightly strike the edge of the snapped-off machine screw anti-clockwise to extract it (a 'machine screw' is the correct term for a threaded part like a bolt but with the thread all along the shaft; a bolt is not threaded all the way).

3. Or, if the screw is really hard to extract, you can use a stud extractor: a tapered hardened steel 'screw' with a left-hand thread. You drill a central hole very carefully, then screw in the smallest stud extractor you can find. As it is a left-hand thread (you screw it in the 'wrong' way), when it bottoms out, the broken screw starts to come out. A normal screw won't work because it is a right-hand thread and will only tighten up the jammed part, it needs a left-hand threaded tool to extract a jammed bolt or stud.

I don't recommend an impact driver for this job
(a heavy hammer tool that is whacked hard and turns anti-clockwise as it is struck - works really well on tough jobs but will mash up a Provari pretty good)

Actually your best bet is to take it to the nearest garage with a workshop, they can fix this for you. Just tell them it is DELICATE.

 

[Hoosier]

If it is not broken off flush, a potato could do the trick.

You need to cut the potato so it will fit in the well of the ProVari and have a flat surface. Push the flat surface firmly against the broken off thread section and unscrew. As long as there are jags of metal sticking up and you did not torque your tank on real tight (which you shouldn't have anyway), the potato should work.

It's an old trick that was fairly common back in the day when incandescent light bulbs and basement/garage work shops were common things. Getting a broken bulb out of a socket after you smacked the fixture with a 2x4 was real difficult, but a cut potato made it a simple jam-on and unscrew...

I hope it goes without saying that all power should be removed from any device when you are jamming a potato onto it...Not as dangerous with a ProVari as it is with a light bulb, but potatoes are pretty good conductors and cooking one in your hand and having your body provide one leg of an electrical circuit is never a good idea.