Nuts, one says. So I went into Machinery's Handbook to see what
additional wisdom could be made to this discussion of nuts. Who among us
who is not an engineer would ever think that in the index would be, under
"Nuts":
Acorn
ANSI inch dimension:
flat jam
hex
hex flat
hex high
hex slotted
hex slotted high
hex thick slotted
jam
machine screw
square
T-type (not, alas, MG T type in this ANSI category)
Unified
ANSI, metric
heavy hex
hex flange
hex jam
hex, styles 2 and 3
prevailing torque, hex
prevailing torque, hex flange
slotted hex
British Standard
fine
ISO metric
metric
Unified
Whitworth
crown, low and high
eye nuts
high, SAE
slotted, high hex
wing nuts
wrench clearances (tables showing space to design around nuts)
wrench openings (there are standards for this sort of thing)
Nothing written about nylock nuts.
There are 67 fine-print pages about nuts, though a few pages about
washers are included in that count. Howabout a page on British Standard
Double Coil Rectangular Section Spring Washers, Metric Series, Type D?
Ever even seen one of these?
Next time we wander into the hardware store to get a couple of nuts to
refasten the rusty wheelbarrow, or to Moss to get a set of connecting rod
nuts, we can appreciate the magnitude of the engineers' and
manufacturers' task to get the right metal into the right shape, the
right size, the right thread, the right finish, at an affordable price,
into our hands so we can go back to our garage and drop the nut onto the
floor where it rolls irretrievably under a cabinet.
Bob
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