[TowerTalk] Hindsight: Check your rotator bolts

[Dubovsky, George]

Roger wrote:
> 
> It's not nearly as difficult or awkward as it sounds.  Take a bolt
(bout
> 1 1/2" or 2" as I recall).  run two nuts up the threaded portion to
the
> end of the threads toward the head of the bolt.  Put a lock washer on
> between the nut last nut and the open end of the threads (not between
> the nuts. Treat the bolt like a threaded rod which would work just
find
> if we could get threaded rod made of quality steel.  However sawing
off
> and then properly contouring the end of a grade 5 or 8 bolt is not my
> idea of a fun way to spend the evening. SS would be even worse. Insert
> the bolt through the rotator plate in into the rotator base.  Turn the
> bolt in (hopefully by hand) within a couple of threads of bottoming
> out.  Now bring the nuts up the threads  and tighten the first nut
> against the lock washer which is against the bottom plate. Now tighten
> the second nut against the first as a lock nut, some times called a
"jam
> nut".   This leaves  a good portion of the bolt sticking out into open
> air. Hence my remark about not looking pretty, but working great. The
> first nut is tightened snugly against the lock washer but not over
> torqued. That nut is then held with a wrench while the second nut is
> tightened against it.  This one is *tight* but still  not over done.
> It's the one that prevents the first nut from loosening.  (IE Jam nut)
> 

If you think about it, this accomplishes nothing that a bolt would not
accomplish in the same application. The second nut does nothing more
than make the first nut "thicker". If a properly sized bolt with a good
lockwasher under the head is not going to hold, than neither is an
improperly sized (long) bolt with two nuts forming a new "head" further
down the shank of the bolt. The second nut only guarantees that your new
"bolt head" doesn't move on the threads of the bolt, but the head on a
hex-head cap screw already has that feature manufactured in.

73,

geo - n4ua

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