Polly: a tool to remove carriage bolts.

[Philip Davies]

Here’s a carriage bolt that has to come out and the nut is stuck hard; the spanner merely rotates the bolt. This causes much “ vexation of spirit”.
(I am quoting from “Practical Blacksmithing” Vol 2, complied by M T Richardson)


Here is a pair of pipe grips I have modified to grip the head of the carriage bolt.
This is what a polly is supposed to look like.

I have neither the patience, the need nor the skill to make that.

. The prongs have been sharpened, although you can’t quite see that, it seems.

the first thing to do is to drive the lower jaws into the wood, by hammering on the end of the rein.
Then


hammer the top jaws in on the other side, striking the back of the grips. This enables me to grip the bolt’s head firmly enough to remove the nut.
Here is a view of the jaws, although I am sure they are more symmetrical, it must be the light!
.
To spread the jaws, I put it in the forge, and bent them a bit inwards, a bit too much, it turned out, but a bit of filing remedied it. It’s normalised, I don’t suppose I shall harden it.

[Frank S]

Philip I remember we had a couple of polys at the blacksmith shop I worked at as a kid. It looks like yours is every bit as good if not better than they were

[Philip Davies]

Thanks, Frank. I truly appreciate your compliment.

[Altair]

Thanks Philip Davies! We've added your Carriage Bolt Removal Tool to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: Philip Davies's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Carriage Bolt Removal Tool by Philip Davies

tags: hand tools

[gatz]

Neat solution to a common problem.

[mbshop]

Reminds me of japanese nail pullers. I usually cut a slot in the head for a big screwdriver. But this would be handier if i ran into this often.

[mklotz]

Here's a commercial product that might provide the same capability...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[DIYSwede]

Ah - just reminds me of the heavy duty nail puller of my sunny early teens -
helping grandad out in taking a barn down in a coupla days:

A drop-forged slide hammer/ nail puller combo: where you put the jaws just outside the nail's head,
and a few strokes down with the red sliding handle forces them down into the wood.
Then just bend the handle (downwards in pic) so that the "boot heel" hits the floor, forcing the jaws round the head,
and then further down pulling the nail out. Took every 5" nail out, though some broke half-way down in the beams.
For crazy pulling force you could pull the handle up, getting a 1: 15 increase in leverage thru the 50" total handle extension.

It really cost a fortune back in the sixties - developed by "Berndt August Hjort & Co", in Enköping, some 20 mi away from home.
Still proved its worth when I, 20 years ago, painlessly took out two 45 sq m (485 sq ft) 1 1/2", 40 y old wooden floors in a day.
And then: I'm still a tall, skinny, non-carpenter type to start with...
"BAHCO 38" is its designation, and it costs app $100 today.

Great concept and nicely done, Philip!

Cheers
Johan

[Philip Davies]

Yes, that is an excellent tool. As well as that, I have a compact one, 8”/9”, which has a lug on it, for the claw of your hammer. It’s often got me out of trouble, I always take it to work. Unfortunately doesn’t seem to be made now. I know it as a “parrot’s beak”.

[volodar]

Reminds me of japanese nail pullers. I usually cut a slot in the head for a big screwdriver. But this would be handier if i ran into this often.

That is what I do as well, either by hacksaw or by thin angle grinder cutting disk. However, for rusted-on nuts, I apply penetrating fluid, then modify the head from circular to parallel flats by cutting along two parallel chords and removing the resulting minor segments. The new head is then gripped by whatever - small drill-press vise, crescent wrench, vise grips...