Stainless steel hexagon bar in whitworth head sizes

Unless money is no object on a motorcycle build, i'll be a Heretic (and a Cheap Charlie) and use A/F and metric on a Brit/Harley bike. On a Euro bike purely metric 'cos it's that much cheaper. If i was building a p/unit Triumph for myself i'd use A/F, i aint no originality buff. I also prefer using A/F spanners and sockets compared to Whit.

When building the reactor for the UKs first Polaris submarine, the designers worried that stainless fittings would not be reliable and specified a chrome moly steel.

After the discovery of extensive cracks, they all had to be replaced by stainless and the time required meant the stainless had to be sourced from the US. This allowed the US to use supply of the steel as a bargaining chip to limit the access of UK inspectors to make safety inspections of US nuclear-powered subs at UK bases.

Neil

No real reason why not: Something like 7075-T6 is stronger than many steels.

I was involved in stressing a runway beam setup in a box once & had to investigate making the steel beam a lot lighter. On looking at sensible proportion aluminium extrusion sections & 6082-T6 alloy I came to the conclusion that for the same reserve on ultimate strength, an aluminium one would weigh 40% that of the steel one, and for the same stiffness, it would be 50% the weight, though the section was 40% deeper. After lots of discussions, our customer was the one who lost their bottle & requested a steel runway beam, so it never got built & the weight saving had to be fought for elsewhere.

Regards,

Richard.

I used stainless fastners on my Trident at I used it 365 days a year in those days, Cadmium plating does not last long with regular use on salted roads. I find you do not notice stainless fastners if you rest the temptation to mirror polish them all but you do notice rusty nuts and bolts ( reminds me of a good band "Dumpys Rusty Nuts"

Mike

Yep peak4 still got it, haven't ridden it for a long time. 78 Mk1 L/M. Used Copper slip on all the threads, (found out about cold welding or Galling VERY quickly). On a practical note, unless the bike/car or whatever is going to be a show queen, Cadmium plating is a pain in everyday use, I changed mine (non mirror polished) so that when the bike was hosed down every week on a Sunday morning, there were no rust marks and no problems loosening fasteners for maintenance. Found "Nyloc" nuts to be a pain early on and used "Aerotite" for preference, again with Copperslip.

High tensile Stainless can be used but we're back to rusting.

And Cadmium was outlawed by the elfins a long time ago.

Regards Ian

Yes, I bought a small bucket of a copperslip equivalent that I'm still working my way through, but even better was some black stuff I bought; ex of US missile maintenance at a steam rally. Even works years after application on Landrover series shackle bolts.

When I bought the Ducati, there was a Mk1 Le Mans next to it in the showroom, but it was dearer and the bank wouldn't loan me the £200 it needed to get it. I had enough cash for the GTS, £1200 as I recall- quite a lot on my wages in 1979.

Bill

+1 on all the above, inc the band.

Another Mike.