What's wrong with T nuts? (compared to T Bolts)

You could always give a British manufacturer your business. Especially as they are local to me!

Look at the range they produce **LINK**

JerryNotts

KBC have various kinds of Teco T-slot bolts that are not bad.

Edit: Ooops ... sorry John, I thought you were in Canada - must be thinking of another John. I'll leave the link though for anyone that's interested.

Edited By OMG on 28/03/2014 16:07:53

Am I really reading this? Neck the bolts so they break! Whhaaat? I refer the forum to yesterdays comments made by the honourable Oompa Lumpa. I rest my case your honour.

Rick.

PS, if it was a joke then ha ha hee hee, thats a good one!

When I started work as an apprentice,1958, practice in our works was to use T nuts and their use was general in industry, the threads were were Whitworth 3/8 for small machines ,1/2 inch for medium machines, and I never saw a T slot broken as quite frankly we were trained in the use of machines and did not pick things up as we went along.In larger organisations trained tool setters set up machines for the monkeys just to wind handles and fiddle the bonus.

Where I worked ,a small company ,the owner kept an eye on things and was very particular about good workshop practice,He would not allow the use of long spanners,did not like studs and nuts on mills and bolts were used with t nuts on all machines. The whit thread is coarse so the jacking force is smaller than modern metric threads ,and the risk to table t slots was less, to select a bolt for a vice you just put the vice on the table making sure there is no swarf trapped then position the hole/slot in the vice base over the T slot and select a bolt that will hold the vice securely and not touch the bottom of the slot if it was close to the bottom then place a washer under the bolt head,then slide a t nut under the vice and bolt it down, the same method to select bolt length can also be used on clamps higher than the table which span the workpiece and a suitable block. If Tee bolts are used say to hold down a large vice ,then the vice has to be lifted up high and fiddled over the bolts with the risk of trapping fingers and trapping a bit of swarf between vice and table resulting in a ding in the vice and table,far easier with tee nuts. On small machines ie Myford cross slide ,to reduce the risk of damage long tee nuts can be made the full length of tee slot in the cross lide. with a row of tapped holes in the nut.

When I see photos on the web of various owners set up on milling machines ,its amazing how many have left spanners ,vice handles ,spare clamps on the machine table, our shop had plywood boards about 10 inches square which sat on one end of the table and and any tools in use had to be left on the board, What is the point in having precision machine flat tables and then putting rough tools on them which over period put dings and burrs on the table and so risk the accuracy of the work,

One point back to clamps, when holding work on the table if the work moves under the side thrust of the cutter,do not over tighten the clamps,and risk the tee slots or distort the table,use thrust blocks to take the sideways thrust,the block is clamped via bolt and tee nut, the face in contact with the table must be flat and smooth to avoid spoiling the table surface and place a piece of paper between table and block to increase the friction and stop the block slipping.