# Giant Nuts



## Helvetica (23 Sep 2016)

There's no way to ask this without sounding like Viz comic so I'll just ask - where can I find giant nuts? I want to make a 10' table base from steel, the ends to be joined with threaded bar and nuts. I can only find 48mm threaded bar and matching nuts, anyone know where I can find larger, maybe 75mm or more, with paired nuts? Cheers


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## Phil Pascoe (23 Sep 2016)

It might help if you gave an idea where you are - they could be a little cost prohibitive to post.


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## bugbear (23 Sep 2016)

Helvetica":3qg3z81l said:


> There's no way to ask this without sounding like Viz comic so I'll just ask - where can I find giant nuts? I want to make a 10' table base from steel, the ends to be joined with threaded bar and nuts. I can only find 48mm threaded bar and matching nuts, anyone know where I can find larger, maybe 75mm or more, with paired nuts? Cheers



You'll probably have more luck finding pipe (and nuts) than solid bar in the diameters you want.

BugBear


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## pcb1962 (23 Sep 2016)

Hmm, 10 ft of 75mm dia steel rod is going to weigh about 105 kg by my calculation, that'll be a very heavy table


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## MattRoberts (23 Sep 2016)

Have you consider scaffold levelling screws? They're not 75mm, but considering they're designed to support scaffolding, they're really strong enough. 

Why do you want such a large diameter? Aesthetics?


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## Jelly (23 Sep 2016)

For all practical purposes, hex nuts stop around 1½" to 2" (and the metric equivalent), shaft and axle locking nuts extend up to those sizes, but if you want the aesthetics of gigantic nuts that's unlikely to do.

You could machine them from solid bar hexagonal bar easily enough on a modestly sized lathe, but a length of the correct dimensions of EN8 hex bar would be rather significant in cost (an M64 bolt made to the ISO standards is 95mm across flats).

I think a larger number of smaller threaded studs welded or threaded into the workpiece, or termination in a fabricated or forged joint held together with a pin is more common for solid members of that size.


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## Limey Lurker (23 Sep 2016)

What about using two Acro jacks (discarding the inner sliding tubes) welded together at the plain ends. Use the normal Acro adjusters for the loading, and have made dummy hex nuts in light gauge which fit over the adjusters and are secured by rare earth magnets?


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## Stanleymonkey (24 Sep 2016)

I have no idea about this sort of stuff!

But

We had some security cameras fitted where I work, along with floodlight pylons. Concrete block in the ground with bolts sticking out - post goes on top. Nuts to secure to the ground. Can't remember the size exactly. Surely they are big enough and widely available??


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## Helvetica (26 Sep 2016)

Using acro jacks is actually a great idea, must look into that. 

For reference here is a pic of the table I'm aping.





The plan is to weld a section of threaded bar into both ends of 10' pipe. The nut is purely aesthetic as I think a much smaller nut would look wrong as the main connector for the two end plates. I'm in Ireland which might be tricky for shipping, but I only need the threaded bar (2x 12" lengths) and 2 nuts. 

I suppose I could always cut from hex bar as suggested and fake it to look like a nut.


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## Jamesc (26 Sep 2016)

As it is purely for aesthetics why not make the nuts in wood and paint them? 

James


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## heimlaga (26 Sep 2016)

I regularly find bolts in those sizes at the local scrapyard.
They are rejects from a local manufacturer. Sometimes with nuts. Usually M48 but I think I have occasionally seen some M64 as well. 

If you find a way to get the shipped from Österbotten to wherever you live I am fairly sure I am able to help you if you give me a few months;-)

By the way I have a 95mm spanner out in the tractor shed. Found it at the scrap yard and bought it for scrap value just in case I might need it.


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## adidat (26 Sep 2016)

Reminds me off my childhood, my dad used to buy full pallets of mod surplus, sometimes for pennies. For a bit of pocket money we used to go to his yard at the weekends and unwrap the bits. Everything would be packaged with about 6 layers of grease paper and plastic wrap, amazing how the mod likes to waste the tax payers dosh!! 

We always joked the the sailor that needed the part to stop his destroyer sinking would be desperately trying to get all the packaging off with frozen solid fingers in 4 foot of icy water :lol: .

We came across these nuts they must be about 80mm across the flats, just to anger you some more most items had a small price tag with them, each nut cost joe tax payer £115  :shock: :shock: 

I realise that part of the cost would be made up of stringent testing and unique serial numbers, but still.

Will be 5 years on the 31st since his funeral!  how time goes!

His yard will soon look like this!!







Sorry for the hijack btw!

Adidat


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## adidat (26 Sep 2016)

Another slightly wacky method but why not have the nuts with some protruding thread 3d printed, then just use some steel tube??

Adidat


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## novocaine (27 Sep 2016)

have a google for a local shipwrights (if you're near a coast), they usually have this stuff cast aside typically used as paper weights. if your lucky and you've got a kind face they might let you have them for pennies.


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## SteveW1000 (1 Oct 2016)

3" pipe with pipe caps and fab some nut shaped bits out of 3mm plate to fit over the caps. No need to weld in threaded rod into the pipe. Can tighten with stilsons and no need to find or make a giant spanner.


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## Jelly (1 Oct 2016)

SteveW1000":2hfwwab8 said:


> 3" pipe with pipe caps and fab some nut shaped bits out of 3mm plate to fit over the caps. No need to weld in threaded rod into the pipe. Can tighten with stilsons and no need to find or make a giant spanner.



Weirdly gigantic spanners are still easily available and being manufactured up to 3"BSW...


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## SteveF (1 Oct 2016)

what about flanges
might look good

http://www.pipefittingsdirect.co.uk/con ... lange.html

Steve


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## Jelly (3 Oct 2016)

Would all thread and nuts up to M80 suffice?

Available here, mild or stainless steel.


Edit:
The price might make your eyes water... Their catalogue lists M64 threaded bar at a very reasonable* price of £22350 per 100×1m lengths... Thankfully they do sell it as individual 1m lengths, not just by the hundred.

* Considering that the price is for 2.92 tonnes of GR8.8 high-tensile bolts; without that context it does seem pretty staggering.


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## Eric The Viking (3 Oct 2016)

Nobody said shabby chic should be cheap!

Whatever you think of the aesthetics, a table like that will be a lot of weight bearing on a very small area of the floor, resulting in heavily marked (ruined?) carpet or other flooring and possibly rust stains (try keeping paint on the underside of those brackets!). And if it's as heavy as it appears, good luck with moving it about.

Ironically, it doesn't look very stable either as the base is too narrow. If you look at most refectory table designs, the feet extend close to the edges of the top for that reason. The considerable weight only helps if the centre of gravity is low enough, and in this case...

If you really must do it, try a mock-up first, if necessary scaled down.

I like good industrial design, but, although that has a certain style, it looks horribly impractical.

E.


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## lee celtic (5 Oct 2016)

Have you tried Architectural salvage.. I used to have an old chapel I used as a workshop 
and we had to have rods threaded right through the building and a big plate plus nut on the outside.

Structural building tie rods.. the ones we had were about 60-70mm across but they may come bigger.

I would post a link but I'm a noob..and it won't let me. 

galvanized-tie-rods << google this


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## Alexam (23 Nov 2016)

Just an idea, contact a railway enthuiast group. I'm sure those could be available from an engine on a railway train.
Malcolm


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## AJB Temple (23 Nov 2016)

He has built the table now. It is in another thread. Looks good too.


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## bugbear (23 Nov 2016)

Courtesy link:

mahogany-black-steel-dining-table-t101382.html

BugBear


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