Use What You Have (Material is Everywhere)

[Brento]

Yea i gave quite a bit of delrin or plastic. And most of my round stock is ss or aluminum

 

[MrWhoopee]

So I find myself needing more of those little pins from the first post (they're the reset and trip levers for the retractors), and having tired of using nails, it was time to get some real material. I chose 5/32 because it can be threaded 8-32 without any prior machining, and 8-32 is the size of the set-screws in the collars I'm using. After looking around for cheap economical sources, I arrived at 5/32 TIG filler rod. It comes in convenient 3 ft. lengths and is copper plated to prevent rust while in storage. The copper plating polishes off easily when making the pins. I was able to get 2 lbs. of the filler for under $20 delivered. If I use all of that, I'll look around for a screw-machine shop to make the pins.

 

[Cadillac]

Filler rod is pretty malleable wouldn’t think a good material for a pin if taking any type of load? Coat hangers might be stronger??

 

[MrWhoopee]

Filler rod is pretty malleable wouldn’t think a good material for a pin if taking any type of load? Coat hangers might be stronger??

Filler is 70 ksi tensile, so stronger than CRS. More than adequate for this application, no significant load. You will see the long one being manually reset in this video. The short one is underneath and pushes against the stop to trip the release.

Wire coat hangers are (AFAIK) a thing of the past. They may still be used by dry cleaners, but I wouldn't know. They're also too small for this application. Otherwise, they are like gold, when I see 'em I grab 'em.

 

[Cadillac]

My work uniforms come with them. I save some for hanging stuff for painting works great. I’m sure u know what your doing just throwing it out there.

 

[Batmanacw]

My family farm needed a couple 32mm pins made to hold a tine on a deep ripper. They had some worn out shafts laying around that worked great and I got to keep the extra material. They are under orders to never throw that kind of stuff away. Lol!

 

[Provincial]

I have found that Caterpillar makes its bolts from a very nice material. It is as strong, or stronger than Grade 8, and machines like butter! It must be a free-machining steel, threads nicely, and it leaves a beautiful surface finish.

I get long 3/4 NC bolts from an engine rebuilder. Cat 3400-series engines require the head bolts to be replaced every time a head is removed, so they have buckets of them, and I drop about scrap price in the coffee kitty every time I drop in there. I find that I can cut down a 3/4" Cat bolt so fast (even with my Atlas 10" lathe) that it isn't worth dealing with smaller diameter mild steel material.

 

[mmcmdl]

I get long 3/4 NC bolts from an engine rebuilder. Cat 3400-series engines require the head bolts to be replaced every time a head is removed, so they have buckets of them, and I drop about scrap price in the coffee kitty every time I drop in there. I find that I can cut down a 3/4" Cat bolt so fast (even with my Atlas 10" lathe) that it isn't worth dealing with smaller diameter mild steel material.

Similar here . We throw out hundreds of grade 8 bolts out daily . Every die change requires new bolts . Some dies require 80 - 100 1/2"-13s . I saved them for a while and just got tired of it . What do you do with 5000 bolts ?

 

[ChazzC]

I have found that Caterpillar makes its bolts from a very nice material. It is as strong, or stronger than Grade 8, and machines like butter! It must be a free-machining steel, threads nicely, and it leaves a beautiful surface finish.

I get long 3/4 NC bolts from an engine rebuilder. Cat 3400-series engines require the head bolts to be replaced every time a head is removed, so they have buckets of them, and I drop about scrap price in the coffee kitty every time I drop in there. I find that I can cut down a 3/4" Cat bolt so fast (even with my Atlas 10" lathe) that it isn't worth dealing with smaller diameter mild steel material.

Cat does not {edit] manufacture their hardware, they provide detailed specifications to vendors who source the hardware for them. I spent 5+ years consulting for Raymark/Universal Friction/FDL-USA, who manufactured a range of items for Cat, including sole-sourced friction disks for D-7 steering clutch packs. Cat required them to include the necessary rivets for rebuild kits and the rivets were purchased from a third party.

Cat & Deere fabricate and assemble the frames for their equipment, and build engines and other assemblies from purchased components, just like car manufacturers.

That te 3/4" NC are required to be replaced after one use would be an indication that they are designed to stretch during torquing, so they could be a type of free-machining steel.

 

[Provincial]

Cat does manufacture their hardware, they provide detailed specifications to vendors who source the hardware for them. I spent 5+ years consulting for Raymark/Universal Friction/FDL-USA, who manufactured a range of items for Cat, including sole-sourced friction disks for D-7 steering clutch packs. Cat required them to include the necessary rivets for rebuild kits and the rivets were purchased from a third party.

Cat & Deere fabricate and assemble the frames for their equipment, and build engines and other assemblies from purchased components, just like car manufacturers.

That te 3/4" NC are required to be replaced after one use would be an indication that they are designed to stretch during torquing, so they could be a type of free-machining steel.

The head bolts are not special. They are the standard Cat bolt for that length. All the Cat high-strength (Gr. 8 equivalent) bolts seem to be made from the same material.

I believe that Cat issues a performance specification for hardware. There are many types of Cat hardware, so the one for this series of bolts is probably different from many others.

Edit to add:
I once tried to repurpose some one-time-use head bolts from a Ford 7.5L engine. They were very hard to machine. Hard, tough, poor finish, and abrasive. It seems that there are various theories on what material to make head bolts from!