From: Douglas B Rupp (rupp@gnat.com)
Date: Wed Aug 17 2005 - 11:35:04 PDT
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas B Rupp [mailto:rupp@gnat.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 11:26 AM
To: 'Military Vehicles Mailing List'
Subject: How do you unscrew an Army anchor?
I bought a 25000 lb anchor at a Government Liquidation auction a while back.
I thought at first it was Navy but a) the color is wrong, b) it doesn't
appear to have ever been in sea water, c) the shape is unusual.
A friend (who was very persuasive) claims it's an Army "dead head" used on
(for example) a Ranger training course to counterbalance an suspended
cableway or something similar.
I want to use it for a similar purpose (couterbalance) but I can't get the
top off. The anchor is made of steel filled with cast iron with a
hemispherical bottom and a 6' tall 10" diameter post sticking up. In the top
of the post there's a 2 piece funnel shaped *aluminum* clamshell with 6
recessed allen headed bolts in a circle around the edge of the clamshell
top. There's a 1-3/8" hole at the bottom of the "funnel" and wire rope marks
on the tapered sides, so it seems clear that the clamshell is supposed to
come out and apart so that a wire rope with a knob on the end can be
inserted.
I got the bolts out and the funny thing is that the bolt heads are resting
on steel anchor, not aluminum, so the bolts aren't holding anthing *down*.
The only other purpose they could serve is to prevent the aluminum top from
rotating. So the only conclusion I can come to is that the aluminum top is
like a gigantic bolt that unscrews from the anchor once 6 smaller bolts are
removed. I made an unscrewing tool and put about 600 ft-lbs of torque on the
top but it didn't budge. The next step would be lubrication, heat and more
torque.
I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has seen one of these things and
knows how they work.
--Douglas Rupp
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