Here’s my “setup for sorting small mixed-up items.” I received about 1500 lbs. of industrial-type bolts, hundreds of different types, with from one to a few hundred examples of each, all mixed up together. Sizes of these items range from the size of a straight pin to grey steel “hex head” bolts two feet long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter (only a couple dozen of those fortunately.) I take 20-30 lbs. at a time, dump it in the yellow tray, then flip the three easiest-to-recognize types into three piles in the corners, bag or box those piles, then work on the next-easiest types to recognize quickly. I made the three piles shown in about 15 minutes. The makeshift table moves up or down with a pedal so I can sit or stand to do the work. https://wp.me/aMlEl-tT I really like having a good choice of fasteners available for our various projects; it speeds things up a lot.
Oh!!!! That was nuts! Fit this thread well... Left handed turn and all! You came through in the clutch! (...head screw)
Well, not me, but I do find Spring's post most entertaining, and I hardly know a bolt from a nail. Spring...you are a man of much patience.........that's a wonderful attribute!!
Thanks, since we’re talking about bolts, maybe someone can tell me the purpose of the one “blobhead” bolt I found. That’s my nickname, no idea what industry calls ‘em or I wouldn’t need to ask here. Shank is 4” x 1/2” and head has small triangle mark only (common mark on many bolts.) Around head are four small flat circular areas around one side only. https://wp.me/aMlEl-tU
I think they might be blanks for custom head sizes. Usually, blanks have machined heads and blank shafts; maybe this is an exception. Just a guess. Just saw Terrie's reply, got sniped.
The 'cool'est tight tolerance work I ever helped with was on my last ship, a destroyer. Before I had arrived, an accident had occurred with the stern 3" gun mount. ~ There was a steel cover plate over the deck mount which I had to weld lifting tabs to. Of course this was the first thing I had to do aboard and so all the officers were watching including the Captain. Kind of a working interview if you will. ~ So the shipyard guy, whose responsibility was mounting the turret, was there and the new gun turret was ready on the pier. ~ So the plate was lifted off and to the pier without issue. Then the turret was lifted aboard and we set some tapered alignment pins to hold it in place temporarily. ~ I had a small, very old, lathe in my shipboard repair and maintenance space and he had brought all the bolts AND dry ice! ~ So...'we' micro measured each hole in the turret base itself and the matching plate in the deck. ~ Then we turned the, oversized, new bolt down to a few thousandths over the diameter of the hole, in the lathe . Then the bolt went into the dry ice for a bit... Then we scampered quickly up to the mount and fit the bolt into its particular hole. ~ As you can imagine the gun turret has to be immovable...and this surely does it. A great experience that was.
Thanks. Looking at it more carefully, I can see that the small flat areas would correspond to the bolt head being forced into an octagonal hole. The bolt has been used because the plating is absent from those little circles on the periphery of the head; the force-fit scraped the plating off and flattened the curvature where it was in contact with the octagon. The forced contact would provide plenty of resistance to turning so the nut could be tightened fully on the threaded end. I’m guessing this system was developed to facilitate machine-installation of the bolts since the requirement for a particular angular orientation to allow some kind of wrench to grip the head no longer existed.
There are similar with rough splines to make it tight in the hole. Some have tapered shanks. Some have oblate shanks. Some get spot welded or brazed in. For putting in place on a premanufactured section of something usually. You've probably seen smaller ones for attaching a pump to a motor or some such.
That sounds like one of my dad's tricks. He was an old school metalurgical engineer. He used to do castings that required zero machining afterward to make them fit properly ...something the younger guys never could figure out. It sounds like your bolt was there until Kingdom Come.
Nice! ~ Yes, that thing can't be allowed to loosen or move. ~ I forget how many but there were probably 200 or so. They are quite close together.
