[TowerTalk] Hindsight: Check your rotator bolts

[Roger (K8RI)]

Dubovsky, George wrote:
>
>
> If you think about it, this accomplishes nothing that a bolt would not
> accomplish in the same application.

Yes it does.
>  The second nut does nothing more
> than make the first nut "thicker". 
A thicker nut and two nuts "locked" or jammed together are quite 
different in the way they work.
A thicker nut or rather one twice as thick (two nuts) offers twice the 
area as do two nuts, but the two nuts work against each other by 
preventing each other from turning. The thicker nut does not.
> 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 mechanics of the two are quite different as is the purpose.  The 
problem is not holding, the problem is the bolt coming loose.
Again two different problems although if a bolt comes loose it won't 
hold, not holding doesn't necessarily mean coming loose.  IOW the one 
can break where the other just vibrates loose.
>  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.
>
>   
Both serve as "heads", but only one serves as a lock.
The "jam nut" is not nearly as simple as it sounds.


Roger (K8RI - ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R (World's oldest Debonair)