Old fart going nuts over nuts and bolts

[Thomcat316]

Where in the Eastern Caribbean are you, and what are you planning on doing with the assortment of fasteners and tools you will be purchasing?

 

[TQA222]

Where in the Eastern Caribbean are you, and what are you planning on doing with the assortment of fasteners and tools you will be purchasing?

I am currently anchored off North west Guadeloupe but plan to be down in Grenada for January. I go skiing for three weeks in the USA in Feb. and the current plan is to buy everything I need for my tiny workshop in the USA then organise the shipping from Miami to Grenada by sea. Hopefully I will be allowed to bring everything into Grenada as 'spares for yacht in transit'. Things like the mini lathe just are not available in Grenada nor are tiny cap head screws. Anything 5/32 and above is usually OK.

What will I be making well the list goes something like this a wobbler single. a flame licker [ I am aware that they are tough to get running ] a twin wobbler [ I MAY buy the Stuart kit but am not too happy with the problems associated with getting the frame casting held square enough to drill the crankshaft boss true. ] I may build one from scratch using a slab of brass as the frame. If that works I may try a steam boiler. After that a 3.2 cc IC engine from bar stock. This will be stretching the capabilities of the Mini Lathe but we can only try.

 

[tcarrington]

I recently began modelling and had the same choice you are debating. Made a spreadsheet which illustrated that BA was not necessary, in my case. For me, the decision was how to be able to replace a BA call out with an acceptable substitute. Seems the SAE (or imperial) threads do quite well. I think due to their thread design and tolerance, they are a bit stronger, not that strength is a primary concern.

Be sure to get dies as well so you can at least repair a thread gone bad. I would advise you to get numbers 4, 5 and 6 as well. If you buy some some round or hex stock you can make a screw if necessary. Screws you make will generally be "tighter". And give you more satisfaction. For all this some good files will prove most useful.

 

[Thomcat316]

If you are planning on being in the South Florida area please PM me for my email address. I'm in Fort Lauderdale, and may be able to help you out with sources locally for the screws, drills, taps, etc., as well as forwarders for anything you can't carry out under "spares".

I like the suggestion someone made about sticking to stainless, you'll be happy about that.

I might suggest you standardize on metric for simplicity's sake, as the taps and dies are readily available, and drill bits can be interpolated from letter/number sizes. If not, standardize on fractional (UNC/UNF) for easy availability across the board.

In the meantime, go around to all the repair shops down where you are and see if there's chunks of brass or bronze (or stainless, if you're brave) prop shafting, broken propellers (for the hubs), and damaged large nuts that could be used as machining stock. I remember there always being that sort of stuff laying about when I spent time in the Bahamas.