Hi,

So my friend bought himself a cabin deep in the mountains of rural New York; it (was) in terrible shape, but at least it has some cool lighting. This fixture was wired in the most redneck way possible, and the wiring was cut by the bank (probably because it was a safety hazard). The pine tree on which the fixture is located has grown into the mounting plate; I’ve scraped away some bark, but the metric bolts that the installer utilized will not budge.

I have removed the refractor, bowl assy, and lamp. Really all that is left is the gear, housing, and photocell. I do not want to scrap the fixture as it seems to be a proper NEMA head, and has survived 20+ freezing New York winters, and is still in livable shape. I just cannot seem to get the bolts off; though I am using imperial wrench sockets, so I guess that might be the issue, but I do not believe I have any metric variants of these sockets on hand at the moment. Would there be any alternate way to get the housing off? The pine on which it is located is about 95% dead.


Any ideas???

I think the best option would be to drill the heads off. With a drill bit just a bit larger than the threads, if you drill right in the centre of the bolt heads (a centre punch is most certainly going to help here), they should come off once you reach the bolt itself.

You have several options. Before I'd drill into the heads, I'd try to track down the correct size socket for it and a decent breaker bar and power impact wrench if you have access to one and then try to remove the bolts using that. Strange they used metric though as imperial bolts were typically supplied with these.

Failing that, if the bolts have slightly loosened, you could try to cut the heads off using a sawzall or a hacksaw or try drilling them out. If you have a left hand drill bit the correct size, those will work better as the direction of drilling helps to loosen the bolt as you drill.

Ermm, it's a bit drastic... C4.??   

Seriously though, maybe an angle grinder with a cutting disc would do the job.

I have a oscillating tool with a small metal cutting blade that works great for reaching into nooks and crannies for cutting off bolts.

So, I got it off earlier this evening! It’s an early model ITT/American Electric R-175M with an Area Lighting Research photocell. Running its original Philips Lifeguard H39KB-175!!! Cannot believe I have a “Philips” Lifeguard in my possession; and I thought it was cheap junk!

Congratulations.! 

Did you have to resort to the C4.?? 

No.