Minnesota How To Bolt

 

Equipment

Bolts

    Fixe Eyebolt     Powers 5 piece

fixe-eyebolt.jpg (37801 bytes)    power-bolt-hanger.jpg (59048 bytes)

Glue

Hilti HIT RE 500 Glue

$31/package and does 12-14 - 5 1/2" holes with 3 trigger pulls per bolt 
(NOTE: Have to use plastic extension nozzle to get glue all the way back in hole)
(NOTE: We are drilling the holes 7" into the rock and the bolt fits! I think the bolts are at least 6"1/2" long!)

This is the best stuff on the market. Used for underwater gluing

Anchor System

This is the preferred anchor system in Minnesota.

Anchor.jpg (20518 bytes)

 

Why Are We Rebolting

 

Its difficult to tell when old bolts are good or bad. Sometimes when they are rusty on outside doesn't reflect what is on the inside. If carbon steel bolts are used with stainless steel anchors you get a galvanization effect which increases the rate at which bolts rust. So the head may be rusted but the inside bolt may be OK. Or the bolt head could be in perfect shape but the outside sleeve (holding the bolt into the rock) could be rusted.  

Generally this is what we found. There are two types of old bolts

 
  Sleeve + Bolt Bolt Head
Smaller older 3/8 1/4 1/2
Bigger Newer 1/2 3/8 9/16

Many of the small 3/8 will snap off on the first twist when we take them off (see picture). We have even had anchor bolts on Foreign Affairs that we turn a little with wrench and we pulled out with our hand! We need to replace these.

snapped_head.jpg (54968 bytes)  different_old_bolts.jpg (33118 bytes)       

Larger 1/2 are generally in pretty good shape although the head and washers look rusted.

 

6/30/2005 Update:

I took the hangers off Drilling Experience and the 3/8" head just melted the first time I turned it. I also popped off the other 3/8" heads on the route which were the last two bolts before the anchors.

Same thing happened with Foreign Affairs. Joe turned the anchor bolt a bit and it was so loose he pulled the rest out with his hand.

Then again, we took some 3/8" bolts off Dead Dog Face and they were still shiny.

Best you all be very careful with when you see 3/8" and send me email so I can replace them.

Equipment Strength Trivia

 

Misc. Bolt Strength Info

Bolting/Bolt Spreadsheet.xls - Donated by James Loveridge MN Black Diamond Rep

 

 

Bolt Replacement Priority

So based on these findings these are our priorities when replacing bolts:

  1. Get rid of 3/8" bolts

  2. Replace old anchors

  3. If anchors and a couple bolts need replacing, rebolt whole route

  4. High traffic routes

  5. Replace old 1/2" bolts showing wear

How To Clean

 

Required Tools       Joe Cleaning with Bucket

wpe1.jpg (55948 bytes)  wpe9.jpg (74425 bytes)

Misc. Links