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When we are working with old pieces of equipment it is quite
common to find ourselves in the need for special bolts.
Not long ago I had to find seven
hex.-head bolts
3/8" x 1¼"
that were missing to install a cover in the original 70+ year old
hydraulic unit... So far quite common, right?... wrong!
Well, the problem was that we had 25½ threads per inch. That is
quite different from standard (16) and fine (24).
Exactly! they were metric! 9 mm x 30 mm 10 threads
per centimeter. Anyway, we did not have them available.
In this particular case we were bringing up back to life an old pipe bender. We
did not find any brand on it, only the year in the casting (1936 GM). Later we
assumed GM did not stand for General Motors, but for German Made or Germany
Machinery.
We got the bolts machined in the lathe in a matter of
10 minutes
instead of 2 to 4 hours (supposing that you have handy the 9/16" hex bar required)...
The trick here was that we used some 3/8" x 4" (22 cents each) standard bolts as
"blanks". Yes, you have seen that standard 4" bolts only have thread
in the last 2". The shank (not threaded part) is normally thicker, so it
allowed for us to have the threads made on the shank ant then the cut at
30mm. long. This
process was time and money saving and I hope that some time it may be of some use to you.
Enrique
Mora
I am
sure you may have some good ideas to share.
Please send me an email and we will
publish them here...
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