Thread wear advise

Hi all

One of my many avocations is making and repairing drums that have natural skin heads. I made a heading jig a few years back that has 16 evenly spaced 1/4" all thread rods with hooks to catch the rims and wing nuts to tighten them evenly so I can gently stretch the heads onto the shell and hold them while the head dries to fit (natural skins are cranky, you put a bit of torque on them and they tear).

I've probably put on 50 heads with it now and some of the all thread is wearing a bit from the constant tightening and loosening (particularly the 4 stainless rods I got mixed in, won't make that mistake again). So it's time to replace the rods and I've been wondering if I could get some better grade that won't be so subject to wear and jamming. I looked into Acme, but the smallest I could find was 1/2" and way expensive. Is there a tougher grade of all thread than the plated steel stuff you get at the average hardware store? What do I ask for, specifically, since the number of grades out there is baffling. I remember cat 8 bolts from when I worked at Boeing, but I don't see any cat 8 all thread.

Thanks

Jim

Reply to
Jim McGill
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"Jim McGill" wrote: (clip) I've been wondering if I could get some better grade that won't be so subject to wear and jamming. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Allthread is so cheap, and readily available, I would like to suggest two other ways to solve the problem. If there is room, butr the Allthread longer than needed. When you start to see wear, shorten it, so it tightens on fresh threads. Another idea is to use coupler nuts instead of wing nuts. Instead of having four or five threads engaged, you will have (maybe) twenty or thirty. With the load distributed like that, the wear should be much less of a problem. If I were doing it, I would braze something to the coupler nuts to make them into wing nuts.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Reply to
David Billington

Go to

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and enter acme rod in the seach box. They have

1/4"-16 plain steel for about $2/foot, and a bunch of others to choose from if that does not suit you.

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has the same; in this particular case, just a tad cheaper.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Put a good threaded bolt on one end of the allthread if you need a large range for the work, using the allthread to make the coarse adjustment and the good thread for the tightening. If the range is the same all the time, just get rid of the allthread and use good bolts welded or brazed to rod to do the work. I'll also note that rolled allthread that hasn't been plated will last a fair bit longer than the cheap stuff.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Reply to
Bob May

One way you could improve matters is to use a brass nut on the all-thread rather than steel. That way the nut would wear more than the steel shaft. Another approach would be to simply size up the threaded rod to say 5/16 or even 3/8 inch dia. If you did that I suspect it would take so long to wear out that you could do ten times the number that the 1/4 inch stuff got you.

If the stainless wore a lot more then there may be a galling issue and some moly di-sulfide lubricant might be used to some advantage.

Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

Note that the 10-foot threaded rod sold for SuperStrut in the electrical aisle at Home Depot/Lowes is MUCH cheaper than the 1-foot or 3-foot pieces they sell on the hardware aisle. Dunno if it isn't a better type as well.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

A little lubrication might go a long way (if you don't already).

Steve

Jim McGill wrote:

Reply to
Steve Smith

Lubrication is sure to solve the problem but in the your situation you don't want to spread any oil around on the drums, either the skins or the shells especially if they are wood. I too dabble in drum making of the goat-skinned varieties, and used to do it full time as the turner of various shapes and styles of wooden shells for a small company. We had a crude "hydraulic press" setup for tightening the head on the shell. It was simply a square welded frame which at the top held double 4' x 4'

3/4" ply squares, with a circular opening for the drumhead to fit into and butt against the rings. Underneath the drum at the bottom of the frame was a hydraulic jack with a platform to hold the drum squarely in the center. Most drums were laced with mountain rope to hold the head and the frame gave full access to the whole body area to tighten the ropes. You probably won't consider buying a full sheet of plywood for every size of drum you work on though. You could have adjustable fingers at the top to take any size, it would be like a big 16-jaw chuck LOL. Oh well, just food for thought.

Ken Grunke

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Reply to
Ken G.

id change to 5/16 fine thread & build a double nut tacked together so that more thread is in contact at all times

Reply to
Wwj2110

All:

Thanks for all the information, lots of good stuff. This group is great for brainstorming ideas.

Brazing ears onto a coupler nut is a great idea, Leo, don't know why I didn't think of it.

Ken - Right on the lubricant. I tried suet, but it didn't help much. Old fashion lard oil would probably work if I could find some. But definitely no hydrocarbons, the heads stain real easily.

The hydraulic press is an interesting alternative design. I get pretty tired of tightening wingnuts. My drums are 16" - 20" in diameter and about 14" thick usually (though I'm reheading a 26" Greek drum at the moment - talk about an awkward beast) and have heads on both sides (Balkan Tupans and Turkish Daols mostly). Might be a bit tricky design but I have several hydraulic jacks I can experiment with.

I'll look into rolled thread 3/8" unplated steel and see what I find.

Thanks again

Jim

PS Bob - there isn't an ozone hole at the north pole (though there is considerable depletion) because there isn't a land mass to stabilize winter weather at the north pole. You need a stable gyre flow to isolate the extremely cold air which allows the fluorocarbons to react with the ozone. The onset of spring winds caused by increased sun angle is what breaks up the south pole ozone hole. (oops, set off my educator subroutine :- )

Reply to
Jim McGill

This is perhaps over the top, but have you considered using Crisco or some other solid shortening?

--RC

If I weren't interested in gardening and Ireland, I'd automatically killfile any messages mentioning 'bush' or 'Kerry'

Reply to
rcook5

I hear lard oil is made by cold pressing lard. Go to the supermarket and go to the Hispanic aisle and buy a bit of "manteca" and figure out a way to press lard oil out of it.

I've got an old can of white lead if you want to borrow some.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

My Fastenal catalog is a 2000 edition. But then Fastenal carried Low carbon threaded rod, low carbon Acme 3/8 dia, Left hand threaded rod ( coarse and fine thread ),18-8 and 316 stainless threaded rod, Aluminum threaded rod, Metric threaded rod, brass threaded rod, and B-7 Aloy steel threaded rod in coarse and fine thread. They also have silicon Bronze and Nylon nuts, but not in wing nuts.

I would also recommend using some MIL-L-60326MU Spray can lube. It is a florocarbon lube in a solvent. Don't know where you would find it, but it is available. It works as a bullet lubricant and as a mold release. It is non staining. At least you can't see any stain if you put some on paper.

Dan

Reply to
Dan Caster
[ ... ]

Hmm ... I thought that all organic compounds were hydrocarbons, including lard.

Crisco is probably close enough -- I think that it is a purified lard.

Another possible thing to experiment with is a bit of soap rubbed into the threads -- or some beeswax or something similar.

I've seen soap suggested for hinge pins on closet doors to prevent oil stains on the clothing kept in the closet.

Good Luck, DoN.

P.S. I'm glad that someone finally answered the ozone hole question in his .sig. It has been there for a while, and now perhaps he will put something else there. :-)

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Hmm. Graphite. That's organic, and it's

*not* a hydrocarbon.

Sorry, couldn't resist, DoN. :^)

How about KCN?

Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

On 14 Oct 2004 01:14:09 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols) calmly ranted:

Crisco, everyone's favorite party favor, is "synthetic lard" made from hydrogenated vegetable oil. For the uptime lowdown, see:

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It's not a good idea to use soap on metal. It's hygroscopic and will cause rust. Beeswax is a much better idea. Melt a bit in a cup and add some mineral spirits for a more greaselike texture.

------------------------------------------- Stain and Poly are their own punishment

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

How about grease clasified as "food service" or something to that affect. Seems like it would not be oil based.

Reply to
Charles A. Sherwood

How is it organic? It is just an alternate crystal form of carbon, an element. The crystals are in the form of parallel flat plates, which is why it makes such a nice lubricant.

Potassium Cyanine -- that is pretty *anti*-organic, in that it kills lots of organic things -- such as people.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

The box I just checked says "all vegetable product"

Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

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