Awww, Nuts

 Sometimes things go as planned and other times ya can't catch a break. Yesterday I had a project at work that should have been as simple as tightening four bolts. Instead this will be one of those life lessons that somehow I've never been stung by before.

 What you see in the picture is the side of a stainless steel salt spreader. That pad is about 4" x 6" and is the mounting point for an electric vibrator. All I had to do was install the bolts and tighten them up. The bolts went in about halfway and started getting difficult to turn. I got that WTF feeling and tried to back them out. Nuthin doing. One twisted off. The second twisted off after applying some heat. I cut the third and forth off with hopes of welding a nut on and backing them out. Nuthin doing.  I drilled one bolt out and then broke off a tap trying to clean up the threads. You can see the broken tap still in there. I guess thread galling on stainless isn't uncommon but I've never had problems with it before.
 This morning I was gonna finish this post but I won't have time as the furnace in my shop is out and needs attention.

Later.