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need bigger nuts

I have an old woodworking lathe with a 3/8" fine thread tailstock spindle instead of a taper. I bought a Morse tapered live center, knocked the taper out of the bearing and turned down a 3/8" fine thread nut to fit inside the bearing. There were 2 problems with this:

1) in order to fit, I could only turn down the sharp edges of the nut - I'd prefer it was round for a better fit. 2) the bearing is as deep as the nut, which means the live center has to come off the nut so I can unscrew the nut from the tailstock with pliers. I'd rather have a longer nut and only turn down half, leaving the other half accessable to a wrench.

Do they make 3/8 fine thread long nuts (I think they're also called couplers?) and/or do they make 3/8 fine thread nuts with wider diameters? If so, where would be the best place to find them? I've tried an industial supply store as well as the local Home Depot/Canadian Tire/Kent/Home Hardware.

If I can't find them, it was suggested I get a piece of hex stock, drill and tap it, then turn it down. Where would I find small amounts of hex stock?

Thanks, Shawn

Reply to
Shawn Wilson
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I'd try Fastenall for the special nuts. They have a larger selection of anybody. Look at fastenall.com for location nearest you. McMaster Carr would have the hex stock.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Much better to get a chunk of hex stock the size you want, turn it to fit the center, and drill and tap to fit the spindle

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Reply to
yourname

stock?

Thanks for the responses. No luck at fastenall.com - it appears to be a search engine booster page and not a real site. I searched McMaster Carr site and MSCDirect for the nuts - no luck. So it looks like I'm probably down to hex stock tapping whether I like it or not :o)

I searched for "hex stock" on the mscdirect.com site and came up with nothing. Is there another name for it? I apologize if that's a stupid question. I'm a bit out of my element here.

Thanks again, Shawn

Reply to
shawn

Search McMaster for "coupling nuts". There are several flavors of 3/8-24 available.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Greetings Shawn, At the MSC web site, searching for coupling nuts, 3/8-24 thread gets this link:

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is a link to a 3/8-24, 1.125 long, 1/2 across the flats, coupling nut. Searching for "steel rod" at the MSC site brings up a page which lists drill rod at the top. Scroll down that page and next will appear raw materials. Under that heading see hexagon bars. Clicking on that link brings you to a page which lets you search for stock with your desired dimension across the flats. If you decide that tapping a hole is what you want to do you might as well buy it from MSC too. Cheers, Eric

Reply to
Eric R Snow

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