History, Politics And Current Affairs

1: I've several big clamps used to hold-down onto work-benches with holes / slots. Usually, my pillar-drill's accessories, but also handy for eg my folding B&D benches. Happens my clamps came with a chunky 'eye-nut', like a lifting eye. Stronger than a 'butterfly', may be torqued using a long screwdriver etc.
Snag, the nut's wide eye clashed with B&D's frame in end-holes. A washer and chunky nut would solve that. So, I fetched out my laser-cut gauge 'cards', established thread was not the familiar metric M12 (coarse) it appeared, but UNC ½-13. Fair enough, I added a packet of nuts to next A**n order...

Nuts did not fit beyond a part-turn.
Huh ? Gauged new nuts' thread, okay. Gauged both clamps' and their eye-nuts' threads again, still okay. WTF ??

My Feeler gauges, with rather longer thread 'saw' than cards' edges, determined clamp's thread was 12 TPI, not UNC's 13. WTFFF ???

Google reported this was 'British Standard Whitworth', a slightly younger monster than T-Rex, but as enduring as an alligator...
{Sigh...}
Those BSW nuts are in the post...
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2: Some years ago, my beloved wife had a scary fall on stairs. Before witnesses, she slumped off chair-lift, half-slid about six feet down bannister rail and met the coat-hung newel post at the end. She escaped with a fright and bruises, but the newel post was part-plucked from the rail, leaving a finger-wide gap, two stout screws glimpsed deep within...

I do not know how those screws were set from bannister side. Looks like they were counter-bored, plugged etc. One thing was clear, they'd been driven skew through hand-rail to splay and better hold the join. Despite our best efforts, they would not go entirely back into newel-post holes. A quarter-inch gap persisted...

Finally, finally, the wonky newel post bubbled to the top of my 'Look At Again' list. I realised that long framing / decking super-screws / 'lag-bolts' would solve the problem. The sort that are a hand-span length, self-drilling (in theory), take a Torx and/or hex-socket drive.

I could lever open gap, prise / wind old screws back through bannister rail. Close cleared gap. Clamp my portable drill-stand to face of newel post, counter-bore recess. Auger pilot hole. Repeat adjacent. Emplace 'lag-bolts' and torque. Hide both counter-bores with one neat, self-adhesive, 'Key Hole Cover Plate, Repair Escutcheon'...

So, I ordered the makings. Fully 160mm long, the 'lag-bolts' resemble crossbow 'quarrels' minus 'flights', have a T-40 socket in their flanged M8 'bolt' head.

I'd a T-40 in my set for the 'last turns', and a nice 13 mm 'nut-driver' for the M8 head, just pop into cordless drill/driver, no socket-set required...

The 'bolt' head looked a bit smaller than I'd expect of an M8. I checked. It was the 'other' flavour of M8, the 12mm type...
{Sigh...}
Those 12 mm nut-drivers are in the post...

Both those BSW ½-12 nuts and the 12mm 'M8-ish' nut drivers arrived this morning.
Each fitted their targets...

FWIW, my smaller pillar-drill clamps, also with 'eye-nuts' on stem, take 'common or garden' M10...

Ah, the joys of engineering. Sometimes I think there is a special place reserved in Hell for people who come up with the more perverse variations of screw-threads.

I am a hobby photographer, once I wanted to make a "soft release", a raised mushroom-topped button that screws into a threaded hole in the camera release button to make it taller and easier to press, for one of my vintage Leicas. I have a lathe, so no problem, right? Right? Oh no - the bastards made the threadhole _tapered_. A tapered thread; with a smaller diameter at one end of the screw than at the other. For heaven's sake...

A tapered thread ??

I've met such as NPT 'National Pipe Tapered' thread' whose metal / wrap / metal seal improves with progressive torqueing. Not to be confused with much too similar BSP 'British Standard Pipe' which refers to the parallel, non-tapered thread of gasket / olive compression fittings. IIRC, they are sufficiently alike at first, but combination cannot take enough turns to reliably seal...

Um, been a while, but I remember the 'remote release' on my father's favourite camera had a distinctly tapered 'hollow thumb-screw' at shutter-button end...

Down-side, semi-proprietary. Upside, easy to swiftly dock the fiddly, semi-flexible 'Bowden Cable' end-fitting into button...
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Just got a pair of saw-horses, the sort that strive to be adjustable budget work-benches, fold up semi-neatly.
For when my two-level B&Ds lack enough peg-holes or are simply too bulky...
Yes, 'Some Assembly Required'...
Those B&Ds needed lateral thinking to emplace winding handles' hollow pins: A 'C' or 'G' screw-clamp easily drove pins that resisted mallet blows...
Hardware for the new whatsits included four sets of M8 bolts +washers +lock-nuts as hinge-pins between top and legs. Although each saw-horse included a stamped spanner, I found it easier to use those new 13mm drivers from the (pending) newel-post repair to finger-spin each very fiddly nut / washers / bolt set unto 'WAIT THERE !!'. After everything was 'wrung' into happy alignment, I fetched out ratchet and offset 13mm spanners, cranked lock-nuts to 'STAY !!'

A fair few years ago an old industry worker explained to me that at one time they’d wanted to mount some equipment to old brackets affixed to the walls of the factory, of which the oldest parts dated to the mid-19th century. After spending a long time trying to figure out what kind of bolt measurement and such was in play they eventually bit the bullet and discussed it with one of the engineers. After some pondering he concluded that they were dimensioned in verkmått, and specifically verklinjer which were 1/12 of a Swedish inch (Swedish inch = 24.74175 mm.) This 12 base measuring system having started to be replaced with a decimal system in 1855. After realizing that they gave up on trying to find or make bolts that would fit, too much effort for what it was.

"...too much effort for what it was."

Beats me why they didn't simply ream out those brackets' holes to a metric size...

Unless close inspection showed the brackets were in sub-optimal / uncertain condition ??

Like too many truss bridges of a certain age, their girders heroically rivetted via gusset-plates etc, once you start peeking under the lid, you shudder eloquently, do some urgent repairs to buy time, begin designing replacement bridge...

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Fri Aug 18, 2023 11:20 am "...too much effort for what it was."

Beats me why they didn't simply ream out those brackets' holes to a metric size...

Unless close inspection showed the brackets were in sub-optimal / uncertain condition ??

Like too many truss bridges of a certain age, their girders heroically rivetted via gusset-plates etc, once you start peeking under the lid, you shudder eloquently, do some urgent repairs to buy time, begin designing replacement bridge...

I didn’t ask at the time so I’m not sure. If I remember correctly they were cast iron so perhaps they thought that they’d be prone to cracking or somesuch if they altered them. I loved the mood of the place, that 19th century industrial feeling with red brick walls. Big original skylights because it predated electrical lighting and so on.

Micael wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 11:25 am

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Fri Aug 18, 2023 11:20 am "...too much effort for what it was."

Beats me why they didn't simply ream out those brackets' holes to a metric size...

Unless close inspection showed the brackets were in sub-optimal / uncertain condition ??

Like too many truss bridges of a certain age, their girders heroically rivetted via gusset-plates etc, once you start peeking under the lid, you shudder eloquently, do some urgent repairs to buy time, begin designing replacement bridge...

I didn’t ask at the time so I’m not sure. If I remember correctly they were cast iron so perhaps they thought that they’d be prone to cracking or somesuch if they altered them. I loved the mood of the place, that 19th century industrial feeling with red brick walls. Big original skylights because it predated electrical lighting and so on.

I'd love to have a factory like that. These days it'd probably just be a steel building with facade and highlights, but those buildings give the impression you got stuff done there. And lots of windows with little need for lighting during the day would be a plus these days.

Saw-tooth roof-line with rows of North-facing windows, both for non-glare lighting and pivoting for ventilation.

Often with mezzanine along South-facing wall, clerestory windows for offices...