Cutting a brass nut?

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Lenp
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Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Lenp »

No, I am not a spammer, although the title may look like that :grin:

Open for suggestions to....
Cut a 1" brass hex nut in half, through it's width. These are 'special' 7/8-20 thread and the only ones I can find are about .375" thick, which is too thick.
I could use my lathe with a threaded shaft in the chuck to hold the nut and face off what is not needed, but that puts half the nut in the chip pan!

Parting it in the lathe is not too good since parting tools cut a pretty wide swath, and there would be too little of the width left afterwards for use.

Also considered is mounting the nut on a shaft, as above, and mount the Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel onto the lathe's cross slide, parallel to the center line. With the lathe slowly turning the nut, cut the nut in half with the cut off wheel. This may not be exact but it saves half of the nut ... if it works. I have about 50 nuts to cut so a setup that is easily repeatable is needed.

An alternative is to fixture the nut flat and mill off the unwanted portion, but that, like facing it in the lathe loses half the nut.
As usual, suggestions are appreciated!
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
dyarker
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by dyarker »

Add a lock nut to the threaded shaft. arrange so cutting action "tightens" nut to locknut. Might prevent nut rotation while cutting.
Dremel tool clamp available? Still a good idea/
Another is clamp a Jr. hacksaw blade. Also rotate nut on threaded shaft, but how to use length of blade so one spot does not wear out?

nut 0.375 - blade thickness 0.025 = .35 remaining total of cut pieces
.35 / 2 = 0.175 each, (just over eighth of inch)

Cheers,
Dale Y
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CeaSaR
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by CeaSaR »

If you use 2 lengths of threaded rod and weld 2 nuts so that there's 1/8" protruding, you could thread the brass nut to each and chuck it up in the lathe to use a cutting bit or a hacksaw to cut through the center, leaving 2 thin nuts. If you had to, you could use a touch of locktite to help hold it on place until cut through.

Or you could make a split jig for your vise that holds the nut with a blade guide down the center of the nut.

All depends on how far you are willing to go to achieve your goal.
Hey, what do I know?
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Lenp
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Lenp »

Hi Dyarker,
Thanks for your input.The Dremel holder was made for their flexible shaft attachment, not the tool itself. It clamps the handpiece using a couple of split shaft collars that are brazed to a plate. There is a piece of 1/2 square stock brazed to the back of the plate that fits the cross slide tool holder. I chose to use the Dremel flex shaft since it's handpiece fits better on the mini lathe then the bulkier tool itself.

Yes, a hacksaw blade could work but like you said, the blade would wear in one place if not moved, and still considering that. I have a 'Jr' frame and didn't realize that blades were still available.

The turning mandrel is likely to be larger diameter aluminum or PVC rod stock than needed, with one end turned and threaded to match the nuts.
That will create a shoulder that will stop the nut. Since any blade will damage the turning rod when it cuts through the nut, the rod will be sacrificed since the threads will likely be damaged.Threading the rod much longer allows me to stack several nuts on at the same time and use the tails stock's center to help hold it all together. It's these little things that take the most time!

-----OFF TOPIC-----------
From your info block I see your location is Izmir. I went TDY from RAF Lakenheath to Cigli AFB, just outside of Izmir, several times many years ago!
Once we had an earthquake, It got a bit exciting when the earth opened and swallowed the wheels and landing gear on several aircraft's, and split our barracks. Indeed, it's a small world!
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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Lenp
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Lenp »

Hi CeaSar,
Thanks for your input.
That rod idea is what I am looking into, but unfortunately most lathe parting blades are several times wider than the Dremel cutoff wheel's thickness. Consider also that the nut is hex shaped so until it is cut to the root, it will be a bumpy interrupted cut. With a fast cutting wheel speed, and a slow lathe chuck speed, it might be a workable plan.

The idea of a hacksaw jig occurred to me since I still have a Centralab jig, from eons ago, when potentiometers came with long shafts that had to be cut to length. The pot threaded into an end plate, and a slotted plate was moved to the desired length. A hacksaw was placed in the slot to cut the shaft. Great tool if you needed to cut a gang of pots, like for a mixer panel, or to keep a shelf dust free in one spot!
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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haklesup
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by haklesup »

Have you considered grinding the face of the nut on a belt sander until it is thin enough, brass is not too hard, it might take some time but you'll get a nice flat surface. Maybe a bench grinder will go faster.

Slicing the nut into two nuts without a low speed diamond saw sounds messy

Sounds Custom: I suppose you could not find it at McMaster or fastenal (I didn't see any 7/8-20 anything)
https://www.fastenal.com/locations (5 in MD)
dyarker
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by dyarker »

Not wasting half the nut was mentioned in post 1!
Agree that cutting will be messy.
Dale Y
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dacflyer
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by dacflyer »

Looking thru all the post on here ! out of 15 was not spam...glad to see some of us Real guys around..
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Lenp
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Lenp »

hackelsup, dayrker
Grinding by any means is a loss of half the nut as chips and dust. I hope this week I can resolve this and go on.
Yes the 7/8-20 thread is tough to find. These were available from an industrial supplier that had only this one option, non-stocked item with a long del
FYI: here's the supplier link https://imsbolt.com/midland-metal-7-8-2 ... gKaq_D_BwE

Maybe the spammers were scared off by us 'Real People' being online!
Now, if those p0rn extortion e-mails were stopped, my inbox would be less cluttered!
Thanks everyone for all the input. I'll update,when something is decided.
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Janitor Tzap »

Sorry, I haven't thrown in my two cents till now.

But I was scratching my head as too what Lenp was trying to do. :lol:

I don't know where you can lay your hands on it.
But how about some Diamond Wire?

Your still going to have some shavings.
But not as much as a Hacksaw blade, or a Dremel cutoff wheel.



Signed: Janitor Tzap
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jwax
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by jwax »

Know anybody with a waterjet tool?
WA2RBA
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CeaSaR
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by CeaSaR »

jwax wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:14 am Know anybody with a waterjet tool?
That would be a really good option, if possible.
Hey, what do I know?
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Lenp
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by Lenp »

Does the jet/beam widen or deflect the farther away it gets from its aperture? If so, It would seem both might require the nut to be rotated during the cut. As for the diamond wire, I suppose you would need a bandsaw-like tool to pull it through the nut?
In view of the typical set up costs for the low quantity needed, I guess I'm back to a DIY approach.
I'm waiting for a assortment of thin saw blades and diamond wheels for the Dremel to come in. Then, the fun begins. :smile: or maybe not :mad:
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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Lenp
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Re: Cutting a brass nut.. Finale!

Post by Lenp »

First, thanks to everyone for their suggestions. From all of those, it turns out that cutting the nut with saw blade in a Dremel tool, mounted in the lathe's cross slide, and turning the nut with the lathe chuck, worked the best.

One dilemma was how to hold the nut in the lathe chuck. It could not be held in the chuck or a collet since the nut has chamfered faces and once properly gripped, not enough nut protruded to be cut. The answer was there in my Dremel kit, but I didn't see it right away. I used a sanding drum mandrel *, like those for the Dremel but larger. They are available from 1/4" diameter with a 1/8" shank to at least 2-1/2" with a 1/4" shank.
* A rubber sleeve over a bolt that expands when compressed, that is used to hold a sanding drum

The mandrel I used was .75 diameter x 2" length with a .25" shaft. Since the ID of the nut was .825", the mandrel did not expand enough, but, a pierce of shrink tube over the mandrel worked perfectly, plus, since this mandrel was 2" long I could stack 4 nuts at at time, which saved time! By center marking the edge of each nut I was able to line the saw blade up with adequate precision. (If it works,it's right!)

Once I got the setup tweaked it took about 2 minutes to cut each nut. While watching the nut edge being cut, when the saw kerf turned from brass to black, the shrink tube color, that was my signal to stop the blade feed since the cut was through. At the end, only the heat shrink tubing was scarred by the saw blade and the rubber mandrel was unscathed!

One unexpected small complication was that a commercial nut has a beveled edge on both sides of the hole to align the leading threads of the bolt. Since I split the nuts, I had only had the bevel on side. The raw thread in the nut's cut edge would damage the thread on the plastic valve. Some more time using with the Dremel (again) and a small sanding drum and wire wheel, fixed all of them.

At the end, I split 10 nuts in a lot less time than it took to think about it! For appearance sake, I'll use Brass Black on them so are a better match on the device's front panel.


I guess the moral is... 'All things can be done, but the impossible takes longer!' or 'To go fast, go slow in the beginning'.

Once again, thanks all,
Len
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
dyarker
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Re: Cutting a brass nut?

Post by dyarker »

Thanks for letting us in on the outcome.
Dale Y
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