The Garagemahal
Moderator
Build Thread King
Resident Army Ranger , Navy Seal , Super-Warrior , Ninja !!
Posts: 11,518
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Post by The Garagemahal on Sept 29, 2012 7:16:36 GMT -4
I have always used taps to clean up threads , I learned it from my pops who uses them as well
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Post by SocialWheeler on Sept 29, 2012 8:34:51 GMT -4
You have the advantage of prior knowledge... I had to sit there and think about it for a half-hour before it dawned on me what to do, then another 45 minutes to figure out how to do it. My thought process (Reader's Digest version): Bolt won't go in Shit It should go in. Try again. Shit, it's starting to be cross threaded. Should be able to turn it with my fingers. Why can't I turn it? Sit for 10 minutes. Eureka! Because the threads are dirty. All I have to do is clean them. How the hell do I clean something that small, that is hidden in a hole to boot? Could go in the house and ask Scott... He will know, but the experience of having Scott come out and immediately tell me something simple to fix something that I have been wracking my brain about for almost an hour, while amusing for Scott, is fawking frustrating for me. Think to myself that there must be a way to make a hole for a bolt to go into. Immediately deduce that I am a mechanical moron... Duh, a TAP! Go get the taps. Have tapped a hole before, so I am all set. It is to laugh. Last time I tapped a hole, it was using a bolt from transworld that the guy told me the size of so I just had to look it up in the toolkit, use the right tap and I was all set. Then I looked around and used my amazing powers of deduction to discover that I am not at transworld but in the garagemahal. How the hell am I going to discover what size this bolt is??? Well I decided that the bolt is metric. I had a bolt in the Jeep that I knew was M10. That was not it, but it was close to the one in my hand so I decided M8. As I was looking in the tool kit I thought to myself, how in the world do I figure out what the pitch is? There should be a tool for that. I actually wonder to myself what those little saw-looking things are for... Then the mechanical juices of budding expertise start to flow. I found one hat fit exactly into the threads of the new and the old bolts (1.25) and I take the matching tap and head over to the Jeep.
Now from previous life experience I know that putting anything into a hole works better with lube, so I drip some motor oil off the end of my finger into the first hole and SLOWLY start the tap into the hole. There is a tiny bit of resistance at the start, but after that it just screws right in there. I back it out, again slowly, and the bolt went in all the way to finger tight.
I did all six and am glad I did. In the end I guess it's the tiny victories. I will never have the mad skills of Scott and Jan et al, but it was infinitely satisfying to deprive my best friend of yet another opportunity to laugh at my mechanical ineptitude. ;D
Teaching myself is a long process, but I learned something and I won't forget it. Lol
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The Garagemahal
Moderator
Build Thread King
Resident Army Ranger , Navy Seal , Super-Warrior , Ninja !!
Posts: 11,518
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Post by The Garagemahal on Sept 29, 2012 8:56:24 GMT -4
it was infinitely satisfying to deprive my best friend of yet another opportunity to laugh at my mechanical ineptitude. ;D Teaching myself is a long process, but I learned something and I won't forget it. Lol LMAO I get lots of laughs watching you figure stuff out , getting frustrated etc . Missing one is no big deal , there will always be another opportunity to laugh at your expense
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Post by SocialWheeler on Sept 29, 2012 9:18:40 GMT -4
I know. Lol
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Post by DamnJeep on Sept 29, 2012 9:36:53 GMT -4
Just to add.
Using standard bolts you have the usual UNF (fine thread) and UNC (coarse thread) .
HOWEVER if using damn metric fasteners you have to be very careful to get the right pitch. Not as easy to visually tell the difference like standard fasteners.
Example. An M10 bolt may have a pitch of 1.50 (considered coarse thread) or fine thread of 1.25 or 1.00.
In modern vehicles there are a lot of metric. Just be careful as using the wrong pitch tap WILL screw up threads.
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Post by SocialWheeler on Sept 29, 2012 9:40:59 GMT -4
I understand. The 1.25 was the one that fit tightest. I think luck also played a part.
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Creepy
Administrator
Dartmouth
Posts: 18,718
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Post by Creepy on Sept 30, 2012 1:52:44 GMT -4
Best soliloquy yet. Glad you are catching on....faster! You will retain stuff you get on your own, more so than having your hand held. I was suitably impressed that you figured out there was thread pitch, not just coarse and fine. This is when they say "Now he is getting dangerous"
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Post by chefted on Sept 30, 2012 9:20:25 GMT -4
Good job Len, fastener tech is some thing you have to get proficient at in order to be a good tech. You are on your way.
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