[TheForge] rivets and bolts and blacksmiths

[Thomas A. Troszak]

On Mar 5, 2005, at 8:44 PM, theforge-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:

> my experience with cal rod heated high strength bolts for preload is 
> that they are a pain to work with.  Mostly they have been replaced 
> with a "Super Bolt or Super Nut" (Nothing to do with super quench -- 
> smile)   Even a blacksmith could install these "Super Bolts"  
> (blacksmith content for Mother.)

Dear Dave,

I have never used heated bolts but they do sound like a total pain. I 
have used the Super Nuts and they absolutely rule the earth. The only 
problem with them is that I didn't think of it/them first. I have a 
couple of (blacksmith) forging hammer designs where they figure 
prominently.

At the tender age of 20 I learned a cool trick from the guys in the 
railroad shop, when large bolt (say 4" diameter) needed to be tightened 
by hand, first it would be tightened as far as possible, then two of us 
would hang on the end of a wrench with about an 8 foot cheater handle, 
then guy #3 would bash the head of the bolt with a huge deadblow mallet 
or sledge. With every blow, we would drop down a few inches, as the nut 
tightened a little more with each blow. Works on straight or tapered 
bolts. The human impact wrench?
Tom Troszak