Special nuts for various parts

After making most of the bolts needed for the various parts, l had to find some proper nuts. None of the "off the shelf" nuts were what l wanted so l made them. The nuts were turned from bright round steel bar, turned to size and shape, threaded and the hex milled to size on the lathe. I am very pleased with the result. I need to make about 35 to 40 more but l made these over 30 or 40 years ago. Now l have a huge problem, l can't remember how l set them up to machine the hex.

Edited By Joe Bonnell on 05/03/2021 06:05:57

Two alternatives only? Either you have/had a vertical slide and milled them or you held the nuts in a chuck and faced each side. Not any other options, I think.

I keep hex stock on hand of various sizes, and then just drill it, tap, and part off to the desired length.

Saves a lot of time if you have to make a significant number of fasteners of various sizes.

I make bolts and nuts from this material.

Edited By PatJ on 05/03/2021 07:28:51

Frances IoM you can find them in his album

Roy

Hex bar, unless the heads are non standard, Even BA size bar is available,I think still. Drill, tap, part off ! Noel.

And chamfer!

I could not see enough detail of the hex nut in what is left in the album

Joe

With an old style flat top lathe bed the easy way is by putting the work in the three jaw chuck and successively inserting a rotation stop between each jaw and the bed to keep the work in the right position whilst the hex is machined.

Adjust the stop length so the chuck jaw is horizontal.

Do three sides of the hex with the stop in front of the spindle and three with it behind.

Clive

If you can't find hexagon bar that gives an exact scale or drawing hexagon size you can still make your nuts as close to drawing as possible. It is not unusual to come across "hybrids".

Renault 5 twin choke carbs were retained by M8 studs, but with 12 mm A/F nuts rather than the 13 mm "norm", because of space considerations, as an instance. And I have mentioned elsewhere Whit form thread fasteners with A/F nuts or hexagons, in "mass production".

So there are precedents for "artistic licence" to use the nearest metric hexagon for a BA thread.

Howard

Now l have a huge problem, l can't remember how l set them up to machine the hex.

Are you sure you didn’t use hex, all those years ago?

Do you have a vertical slide with vice, a capscrew and an ordinary hex nut to fit?

Easy way in the lathe is to take a bit of hex stock and either thread a spigot on the end or tap and screw in a bit of studding. Then hold in the toolpost spigot facing away from you and screw your embryo "nut" onto that. Now use a large endmill or flycutter in the lathe to put a flat on the nut, repeat six times by rotating the hex bar in the toolpost.

Same fixture can be used to face the sawn/parted side of the nut in by holding it in the chuck.

This assumes they were just a non standard size, without the photo hard to tell what OP was trying to make.