What size hole do I drill for the carriage bolt that I'm installing?
Whatever the size of the carriage bolt is. In this case, it's 1/2"-13. You drill the same diameter.
You use the same size bit. So if you have a 1/2 inch carriage bolt, as I have here, you drill a 1/2 inch hole.
If you have 3/8, you drill a 3/8 hole. Now depending on the type of bit you use, for this I used a spade bit,
but depending on the bit you use this could be a lot snugger.
Oh, also I just want to point out to you a carriage bolt typically has a four-sided head on the underside of the head here.
The reason for that is when you put the washer and nut on and you torque it down it prevents the head from
spinning and twisting on the other side because you have nothing to grab.
So I have here my carriage bolt. And carriage bolts are typically installed with the carriage bolt, a washer, and a nut to follow.
Also, you will need a hammer because sometimes...
...it's a little tight.
You could use a ratchet. I have an open-end wrench here.
So that's what I'm going to use. Use a ratchet if you like.
You see it drawing that head right on in there. Nice and tight.
And you can see it's pulling the head right in.
And that's the installation of a carriage bolt. So if you want to remove that carriage bolt...
So as you can see here the head is nice and flush with the wood.
That's typically the way that a carriage bolt should be completed and finished.
If you start to draw the head in, you can do that if you like, but it's gonna start to dimple the wood on the face.
Typically you don't want to see that. If I want to remove this, all I would do is loosen the nut...
...bring the nut back to where it's almost gonna come off the carriage bolt.
Take a hammer and just hit the opposite side that's hanging out.
Back off the nut a little bit more, as much as you can.
Of course, I'm doing this because this way I don't ruin the actual carriage bolt and I can reuse the carriage bolt.
If you just don't care then just take the nut off and yank it out. You can use the claw like this to just pull it out.
There you go. Removed.