Holding very small parts

[walnotr]

Part of building a Whittle Aero V8 involves re-drilling and tapping some very small nuts. I am looking for suggestions on how to hold these tiny 1/8" nuts so they can be drilled and tapped to a larger size. Would I be better off simply making nuts from 1/8" hex stock?

Steve C.

 

[kvom]

Looks like 2-56 nuts. I would just buy what you need from American Model Supply and save the irritation. They will look better too.

 

[tel]

Some years ago I had to do just this to some 8BA nuts, how I went about it was this;

I found a socket cap screw that had a socket a neat fit on the nut, put it in the chuck (a collet might be better) drilled into the bottom of the socket a short distance, a bit bigger than my intended tapping drill, now, with your tapping drill in the tailstock chuck you pop a nut in the hex and drill through, ditto repeato for as many as you need (+ several), now change to your required tap in the tailstock and pop in a nut, run the tap in, turning the lathe by hand, run the newly tapped nut to the rear of the tap, put in another and go again, keep going til the tap is 'full', then unload it and do it all again - it's a bit fiddly, but we really ain't here to do everything the easy way, are we? No pics back in those days, but I guess I could pose a few shots if needed.

 

[Blogwitch]

Great tip Tel, that will go in my little black book.


Bogs

 

[cidrontmg]

............ it's a bit fiddly, but we really ain't here to do everything the easy way, are we? .........

Hehe, that certainly is FAR easier that what I´ve done in such situations! Don´t even ask, no way I´ll tell. Many thanks, excellent method :bow:

 

[walnotr]

Thanks Tel! :bow: :bow: That's another one of those "why didn't I think of that" answers. Excellent suggestion and I will give it a try. It looks like a 1/4" socket head set screw will be the best bet for the size I need. I'm already thinking of more complicated ways of doing this job. :big: These are undersized 0-80 nuts that I will be drilling and tapping to 1-72. Should be a lot of fun! :big: :big:

Steve C.

 

[deere_x475guy]

Ditto...nice tip Tel.