[Hallicrafters] Re: Decorative Splined Front Panel Nuts

[GARDGORE at aol.com]

GC (General Cement) used to sell an adjustable collet type tool for these but 
perhaps they are not available anymore and just as well because they did not 
work well anyway. I have the GC tools and the problem you have with them is 
the spline style on the nut (splines per inch count) varies quite a bit and the 
tools never really fit anything. If the teeth of the tool do not properly 
engage the splines on the nut the nut will be damaged when the tool slips. Two 
recommendations in previous messages were very good: 1) if you can get to the 
backside there is usually a standard hex style nut that is used to set the depth 
of the switch or jack and you can loosen and tighten there but it might 
require a thin wrench to fit in the tight space they are in sometimes. I have some 
wrenches that I ground down a lot that I find are sometimes needed to get in 
there; 2) if you can't get to the nut behind the front panel use a hemostat. If 
you bark up the splined nuts just get new nuts and be careful tightening them. 
National receivers are a different story and you can't get to the backside 
because of the cabinet style. National used special "styled" nuts that are 
unavailable anywhere except from another National receiver if you kill any. In 
addition the National nuts have a very fine spline that is difficult to match and 
they bark up easily and really look bad afterwards. The best you can do is to 
search around and look for pliers that have different styles of fine and 
coarse teeth to have in your toolbox to be ready for this. For lack of a better 
way, I usually put small pieces of tape around the nut to protect the front panel 
and holding the pliers carefully sideways and with a steady careful grip on 
the nut they will usually successfully turn off. When going back on if I don't 
have a tool that fits the spline properly I hand tighten until I find 
something that fits and put a note inside that refers to the nuts that are hand tight 
only. Important: If the nut is tight and whatever you are using for a tool 
does not engage at least two splines 180 degrees apart the nut will be barked up 
and look awful afterwards.

Regards, Greg