PUMP BLADDER FAIL and RECOVERY

Our power went off sometime during the night but I found we still had lights so checked meter box safety switch. Located the one where the fault lay and reset others.
5am I was again woken with "We have no water!" "You'll have to shower at work & I will check pump & tanks in daylight".
The culprit was the bore pump bladder so isolated it so the house could access water from tank pump.

Attachment 31113

I had a bladder from an old grundfos pump that the "pump man" wasn't able to remove its damaged brass fitting when installing a replacement pump when it was discovered that the grundfos had died after 20 odd years faithfull service. I kept the old bladder because "one day I may need that" as you do. So now I was up to the challenge of removing the fitting.
The plan was to glue some CCA pine together & cut out an arc similar to the diameter of the bladder housing. Easy Peasy. I then secured it to a B & D workmate using the gap in the jaws as the bottom holder and the cca for the top and F clamps to contain the lot. If I had taken a closer look when taking the pic I would have seen the moving jaw at an angle when clamped. FAIL!

Attachment 31114

The pressure broke the plastic parts of the jaw winding mechanism. *#%*@! That bit of French means I WAS NOT HAPPY! I have afew of these but this is/was my favorite for whatever reason. I have used it at building sites, renos, fencing and of course used it for clamping an inverted makita belt sander (before and after I had a linisher) and a jigsaw. It was best for holding doors for making hinge mortices and attaching other fittings #%*%*! I used an old Meranti step tread off cut to clamp the top (after cutting an arc) and again tried. FAIL again!!!!

Attachment 31115

The show must go on so sat and a bright light came on. I remembered making similar shaped pair (of different heights) to hold beer kegs for parties back in the olden days. So I cut the joined CCa pine back to original leaving 2 only Cs to hold and support the base & the broken jaw. while the piece of Meranti could hold the top somewhere near the middle join in the bladder housing. I really felt like a beer by then so had 2.

Attachment 31116

Success, time for another coldie, but a close inspection revealed the threads were heavily rusted & there was a fault line showing that could cause a similar future issue.

Attachment 31117 Attachment 31118 Attachment 31119

Thread tidied & taped.

Attachment 31120

Working good as new allbeit a little slow.:) Saved about $50 to $80 but cost me my nylon like Workmate thread holders.:(

If anyone knows where these replacements are available, please advise. I've seen some with alloy looking ones that should be more durable.
Cheers