ghuns
Well-known member
- Messages
- 218
- Grill(s) owned
- Bull
Though I'd drop this long PSA here since it will apply to most RecTeq products.
For anyone who has experienced pellets getting wet, then drying like concrete around their auger, you know what a major PITA it is to unstick that auger. I experienced this early on with my Bullseye. We were on vacation and my Bullseye got drenched in wind driven rainstorm. I didn't have a cover then, didn't know I needed one. The pellets in mine were still a little wet when I got home and discovered the problem. I was able to brute force it out of the tube by prying on the motor end while my dad tapped on the fire pot end with a hammer/long punch. It sucked.
My son's Bullseye is under a covered patio at his apartment. I encouraged him to get a cover, but he believed it was positioned so it couldn't get rained on. He was wrong. His ordeal was worse than mine because he didn't discover the problem until the wad of pellets had dried like concrete in the auger tube. It was also complicated by the fact that him and his roommate are not all that handy when it comes to fixing things. They tried to pry/hammer the auger out but it wouldn't budge.
While he was home for Christmas, we took my Bullseye apart and made sure he understood exactly how to remove the auger. He was sure he'd done everything right.
I have said before that it would be super handy if RecTeq put a hex on the end of those augers. Those dried pellets in the auger tube are effectively a nut. With a hex, you could put a socket on the end of the auger and simply unscrew it. Some have had luck just tightening a cordless drill chuck on the auger and doing this.
Starring at the end of my auger shaft, a lightbulb went off. The end of the auger, at least in a Bullseye, could have a 1/2" socket slid over it. I took a 1/2" socket and ground a slot across its face using a cutoff wheel in my angle grinder. I found a allen wrench that fit through the cotter pin hole in the auger and cut off a short piece of it. Allen wrenches, at least a quality set, are very tough. Even ones this small. I put the piece of allen wrench through the cross hole in auger and slid the socket over the end so the slot engages the allen wrench. Voila, now we had way to unscrew that thing...
My son happens to sell Hilti power tools for a living, so he has a truck full of cordless impacts in both 3/8 and 1/2". I went ahead and made a socket for each size. I told him to try the 3/8" first, only go to the 22 volt, 1/2" drive impact gun as a last resort. The torque that thing has will break your arm if you're not careful.
When he got home he tried with the 3/8" drive and nothing moved. He called to report progress and I told him to alternate between forward and reverse. Still no movement. I told him to go ahead and get the big dawg, 1/2" impact out but set it to LOW. Again, no movement. I was really afraid he'd break something if he set it to a higher torque. Another light bulb went off, I had him pour a bottle of water into the hopper and take a break until all the water was soaked up, took about 15 minutes. He put the impact back on and hit the trigger. That auger came FLYING out. The pitch of the auger makes it so a little rotational movement results in A LOT of lateral movement. Luckily, he was still set on low so it was manageable.
With the auger out, he was left with a perfect wooden nut in the auger tube that he managed to chisel out with a combo of tools he had available. A tire iron, a flag pole, some PVC pipe, etc.
I should have had him video the process but hopefully you can get the gist of it from my overly verbose description.
For anyone who has experienced pellets getting wet, then drying like concrete around their auger, you know what a major PITA it is to unstick that auger. I experienced this early on with my Bullseye. We were on vacation and my Bullseye got drenched in wind driven rainstorm. I didn't have a cover then, didn't know I needed one. The pellets in mine were still a little wet when I got home and discovered the problem. I was able to brute force it out of the tube by prying on the motor end while my dad tapped on the fire pot end with a hammer/long punch. It sucked.
My son's Bullseye is under a covered patio at his apartment. I encouraged him to get a cover, but he believed it was positioned so it couldn't get rained on. He was wrong. His ordeal was worse than mine because he didn't discover the problem until the wad of pellets had dried like concrete in the auger tube. It was also complicated by the fact that him and his roommate are not all that handy when it comes to fixing things. They tried to pry/hammer the auger out but it wouldn't budge.
While he was home for Christmas, we took my Bullseye apart and made sure he understood exactly how to remove the auger. He was sure he'd done everything right.
I have said before that it would be super handy if RecTeq put a hex on the end of those augers. Those dried pellets in the auger tube are effectively a nut. With a hex, you could put a socket on the end of the auger and simply unscrew it. Some have had luck just tightening a cordless drill chuck on the auger and doing this.
Starring at the end of my auger shaft, a lightbulb went off. The end of the auger, at least in a Bullseye, could have a 1/2" socket slid over it. I took a 1/2" socket and ground a slot across its face using a cutoff wheel in my angle grinder. I found a allen wrench that fit through the cotter pin hole in the auger and cut off a short piece of it. Allen wrenches, at least a quality set, are very tough. Even ones this small. I put the piece of allen wrench through the cross hole in auger and slid the socket over the end so the slot engages the allen wrench. Voila, now we had way to unscrew that thing...
My son happens to sell Hilti power tools for a living, so he has a truck full of cordless impacts in both 3/8 and 1/2". I went ahead and made a socket for each size. I told him to try the 3/8" first, only go to the 22 volt, 1/2" drive impact gun as a last resort. The torque that thing has will break your arm if you're not careful.
When he got home he tried with the 3/8" drive and nothing moved. He called to report progress and I told him to alternate between forward and reverse. Still no movement. I told him to go ahead and get the big dawg, 1/2" impact out but set it to LOW. Again, no movement. I was really afraid he'd break something if he set it to a higher torque. Another light bulb went off, I had him pour a bottle of water into the hopper and take a break until all the water was soaked up, took about 15 minutes. He put the impact back on and hit the trigger. That auger came FLYING out. The pitch of the auger makes it so a little rotational movement results in A LOT of lateral movement. Luckily, he was still set on low so it was manageable.
With the auger out, he was left with a perfect wooden nut in the auger tube that he managed to chisel out with a combo of tools he had available. A tire iron, a flag pole, some PVC pipe, etc.
I should have had him video the process but hopefully you can get the gist of it from my overly verbose description.
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