Nuts 101 Overview With Demonstrations Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today we're going to be talking about nuts and lock nuts. So lets get started.

So I have a whole bunch of nuts on my table. Let's start basically with finish nuts, next into lock nuts and finally into specialty nuts. Which will follow right after. Then we're going to do a couple demonstrations.

So the first (nut) I have up are two machine nuts. To the left I have a standard machine nut and to right I have a small pattern machine nut. Those two machine nuts, they will take the same screw. But, the difference is the outside circumference. Obviously, small patterns are made for very tight areas. For using those nuts on very small, tight locations. So that's machine screw nuts.

Now I have finish nuts and jam (nuts). So to the left I have a finish nut which is a standard finish nut. That's the most typical, widely used nut on the market.

This is what they call a jam nut. Jam nuts are about half the size of a regular finish nut in height. Otherwise, the circumference and everything else is the same. We use the same wrench to apply the nut and remove the nut. To the left I have a finish nut and to the right I have a jam nut. Jam nuts, just to give you what these do: You use two nuts together and then you tighten them up against each other. That's why they call them jam nuts. You use them together, tighten them up and I'll show you a demonstration of that also. Typically, that is how they are used. They are also used in tight areas where you cannot use a full size nut.

This jam nut and this finish nut are what we call a heavy finish nut and a heavy jam nut. How you can tell the difference, here is the standard finish nut. To the left is the standard and this is a heavy finish nut. So you can see the difference in the outside diameter - the thickness of the nut. This heavy nut is going to take a larger wrench. Even though it is the same size bolt that will go through that nut. This is a heavy jam nut. So this is the standard to the left and to the right is the heavy jam nut. So you can see the substantial difference in the size. There are projects that require that type of nut, as specified. So those two as I said are both finish and jam nuts - Heavy.

Next I have, these are square nuts. So you'll see this square nut to the left, these are both basically square nuts. The one on the left has bevels on the ends, on one side only. On the opposite side, it doesn't have any bevels. You can see that, over here it's flat, and over here you can see the bevels. On this smaller square nut, there are no bevels at all. It's just a sliced (machine cut) nut and that's it. The bevels start at 1/4"-20. So anywhere from, I believe the square nuts (on our website) start at #6-32 up to #10-32 will have no bevel on them. However, once you get above that, you will see the bevels on the top edge.

The next set of nuts I have are the locking nuts. So we're moving from finish nuts to locking nuts. These are nylon insert lock nuts. You can see in here they have a nylon insert. That's why they call them nylon insert (lock nuts). What happens is when you put the bolt through, it starts to thread the nylon. That puts pressure on the screw and prevents it from vibrating loose.

This is a nylon jam nut. So this is the same nut - nylon locking - but in a jam nut so it is low profile. You can see the difference between them. This would be your standard. This would be your jam. I'm going to keep these out. Now I have, same thing, nylon jam nuts. However, these are what they call heavy nylon jam nuts. So you can see here, the difference in the standards and here you can see the difference in the jams. You can see the difference and you can tell by the back-side mainly. So when you want to distinguish what's different, you can see the meat that's on a heavy nylon lock nut vs a standard. You can see the wall is much thinner on a standard nut. Obviously you'll need to have the room to put this (heavy lock nut) on. That also stands for the jam nut - the nylon locking jam nut. It's the same thing. So right there as you can see, the difference between them. This is the jam nut - heavy and this is the standard.

Now I'm going to move onto (stover nuts). They call this a stover. It is also called a prevailing torque lock nut. So it has a locking mechanism that's built into this cone. As you put it on it starts to act like a locking nut. I'm going to demonstrate that one also for you.

This nut, this is a two way nut. So how do you tell a two way nut? A two-way nut has this little marking in the center. See it there? It's almost like a punch. Right in the center. That shows that that's a two way. So it's locking, two-way, no matter if you put it on or take it off. Once you start to screw up to that size it will start to lock. So I just reached it now. I'm not going to continue but either way I put this on, it's going to start locking. They call it a two-way locking nut.

The next one I have is a serrated flange nut. This is a nut that has an integral flange built into it and on the backside you can see that it's serrated. That's usually used in applications where you have some type of metal sheeting or something that has metal and you tighten it down. Those serrations prevent it from backing off. So that's a serrated lock nut.

Then we have, as another lock nut, this is called a K lock nut or a Keps lock nut. These have these little wings that are here. This is a free rolling washer lock nut. So those little wings get tightened. The key to this is not to over-tighten it. If you over-tighten this, it's no longer a lock nut and that free-rolling washer is crushed and it just doesn't work for you anymore. The key to this is not to torque it down too tightly. This is a very common lock nut.

Then we have, this is a left-hand (nut) - we are getting into the specialty items now. I'm going to start to show you some special nuts. This is what they call a left hand jam nut. see? It's low profile. The only way you can tell it's a left hand nut is that it has an arrow that is right there. That arrow shows it turning to the left. That's the only way you are going to know when you have a left hand nut. You have to look for that arrow. If that arrow exists, then it's a left-hand nut.

Here's a wing nut. Obviously, very commonly used - wing nuts. For many different types of applications.

This nut is a reducer (coupling nut). So you can see on one side it has 3/8"-16 and this side has 1/2"-13. So you can literally go, if you had some threaded rod and you wanted to reduce it down to a smaller size or the opposite where you wanted to go from 3/8"-16 to 1/2"-13 you would use this reducer coupling nut. That's how this one works.

This is a standard coupling nut. They come in various sizes and lengths. Different thread pitches, fine or coarse thread. All these items I'm showing you do come in coarse and fine thread.

This is a knurled nut. Commonly used in chandeliers, tattoo machines, many different types of finished applications. These are the type of things you put on with your thumbs. You don't usually use a wrench on this type of nut.

That's the same thing with a wing nut. With wing nuts, you always use your thumbs. No wrenches involved in these nuts.

Next I have cap nuts. So there's a few different types of cap nuts. You have low-profile, high crown and then you have what they call an acorn nut and that's a little more substantial in height. Those are the cap nuts.

I have here, what they call, a t nut. T nuts are used mostly in wood. Most commonly. They do use it in plastics also. A t-nut is made to go into a hole that's drilled into the wood or into a plastic product. These prongs that you see here: they come in 3 prong, 4 prong. This particular one has 4 prongs. 1-2-3-4 Four prongs. Then it has this barrel. You push it into the hole that you drilled and then you suck the screw in. This flattens right out with the wood typically. Very commonly used nut.

The next one I have is called a tri-groove nut. It has three grooves on here 1-2-3. There's three grooves in here. This is a security nut. This is to prevent anybody from going and putting a wrench on it. It's very hard to put a wrench on it (let alone pick it up). It's very hard to put a wrench on this nut. You could probably put a vice-grips on it and it'll hold it and you'll get it off. It's really a deterrent for anyone who's walking by and wants to try and take something. That's what it's mainly used for. It takes a special socket that goes over this nut and locks into those three grooves to be able to tighten it on.

Then we have a castle nut. These are typically used in cars. You'll find them on axles. They hold on wheels and bearings. Rotors. We're going to demonstrate this one also for you. Whereas we're going to drill out a bolt and slide the cotter pin in. To show you how this is locked in place.

Then the final nylon lock nut I have which is very interesting; This is a standard nylon lock nut with the nylon insert. This nut is what they call pre-waxed. It's waxed to prevent any galling. So galling gets into where your nut seizes onto the bolt and you can't go any further. Then you'll either snap the bolt or snap the nut. We're going to demonstrate that we'll have no galling with this particular waxed insert lock nut. This is a great product for manufacturing production. You don't have put any anti-seize onto the nuts or screws. So this will save yourself a lot of time.

So let's get into demonstrating a few of these nuts. I'm not going to demonstrate all of them but, I'm gonna demonstrate probably do two or three of them to give you some feel what each one does.

Ok, I have a (Keps) K lock nut here. I have a hole that's in this piece of steel. I'll put my hex cap screw through and then I'm going to hand-tighten this k lock nut, or Keps K nut, on to this piece of steel. As you can see here, I just snugged it up with my hand. Then I'm only going to turn it a couple of times to tighten it. Alright, so I'm just going to tighten this up a little bit. That was it right there. I just snugged it up. Not over-powering the nut. If you had something that just had to be tightened up to and it would free spin, the nut will turn but, the washer will stay in it's original spot. So you can see it right there. You can see the nut keeps spinning. If you over-tighten this it's just going to flatten out that locking mechanism on this lock washer. Thus, it's just going to become loose over-time it'll just vibrate loose. That's the Keps K lock nut.

So I have here a serrated flange nut. I'm gonna slide in my bolt just to demonstrate how this serrated flange nut works. Gonna use a Crescent wrench to tighten it up. That would be your installed serrated flange nut. And that being metal on metal should not vibrate loose (because of the serrations).

Here I have a castle nut. Which we are going to drill a hole for this cotter pin to go through the castle nut. In where these little grooves are, in the castle nut, I'm going to set myself a little starter. I'm going to take my drill. This is 1/8" this cotter pin is 1/8" of an inch in diameter. I'm going to drill a 3/16" hole. What's key here is that you hold the drill level. So when you come out the other side, you come out right where the exit through that prong is. Of course, we need to add some lubricant to make sure my bit lasts me for a while. I'm drilling stainless steel here and I'm eyeing straight across as I'm drilling this. I'm eyeing the screw to make sure I'm running in the right direction. In most cases, this hole is there for you already and you won't have to drill it but in some situations you may have to do that. So I'm sliding that through. There's your cotter pin. I'm gonna grab a pliers here and I'm going to bend this around to lock this in place. This'll make sure that your wheels don't pop off. If this is going on your car. This is your protection from that. Now that's not going anywhere. It's locked in place. That's the whole mechanism behind a castle nut.

I have a T nut here, as you can see. I have a pre-drilled hole in this piece of wood to demonstrate what T-nuts are used for. Let's look at this as the backside. The hole is drilled already. You can see those prongs ready to grab into the wood. I'm going to take this bolt with a washer on it and I'm going to screw that up into the T nut (from the bottom). Like so. I'm just snugging it up. Now I'm going to tighten that up. As I tighten it, it's going to pull that t-nut flush or I can even pull on it a little tighter to make the bottom flush with the wood.

When you're going into different types of wood, this is just, you know, 2x4 pine - so very soft wood. Very easy to pull this down. Now you can see I'm starting to pull this down. You can get it close and tight. You can really torque on these things. They take a lot of torque. That'll show you how a T nut works. These are used in many applications, many finished products: cabinetry, used on snowboards to keep the bindings attached to the snowboards. Along with skis. Many different applications for this t-nut. That's the demonstration of a T Nut.

So I have here a waxed nylon lock nut. Waxed nylon lock nuts are used in manufacturing where you don't use any type of lubricant or anti-seize. This is to take out the requirement to dip the bolt inside some type of lubricant. So you don't have to waste time. They have what they call pre-waxed nylon lock nuts. I'm just gonna screw this on right now with this ratchet. To show you that it will not gall up as a normal nylon lock nut if you put no anti-seize on it. This goes on like cake. It's so smooth. That waxing is amazing. So those who are manufacturing and want to get around the issue of galling or having your staff wasting time. See that? Went all the way down. No galling at all. It's the perfect thing for manufacturing.

All About Cap Nuts Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners, Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today we're going to discuss high crown and too tall cap nuts. So let's get started.

I have cap nuts here. I have a standard cap nut that you'll find almost anywhere. I have what they call a high crown and you can see, the crown's a little higher. It's probably somewhere about, I would say about, a heavy 3/8 of an inch taller than a standard cap nut. Then we have too tall. We have a too tall in a flat head and we have too tall in a rounded head.

Now the two tall come fully threaded all the way through the inside to the top. So you have full threads all the way through. You have on the too tall what they call a flat top. You can see the top is flat and it has a chamfered edge around it and on the round the top is just rounded over like the standard cap nut at the top.

They call these too tool because they're approximately, if you took the high crowns, double the height almost. But if you had two high crowns, I don't have two high crowns here but if I did, it would be close to this size and that's why they call it a too tall.

These are USA made products, they're made here in the USA. They're quality products. These are 18-8 stainless steel. They're available on our shelf ready to ship.

The question always comes up "what do I use for different things"? Depends on your application. So many different applications out there. How far is your threaded bolt sticking out on the other end? If it was sticking out that much, you couldn't use a standard cap nut. You're going to see probably about a 1/4" - 3/8" of an inch sticking out. If that was the application. So, then you would go to the high crown.

I'll just keep my finger there as a stop, and that just makes it. Those are the different applications. This one, which is double tall, will keep on going and, just so you know, you will get some gulling because the difference here with stainless steel is that you have a rolled thread on the bolt and on the actual cap nut you have cut threads. So you have two different threads running against each other which creates gulling. You can use some lubricant. That works well.

I just want to show you on this how far this will go in. So you're looking at a good 1-1/2" of this 2" bolt, that I have here. It'll go all the way in to this cap nut and there it is.

As far as applications go, there are many different applications. I've seen these used for - they get polished up - some people will take them and polish them up. Polished stainless is amazing - the way it looks. They'll take them and put them on their trucks and their cars just for the look. It's all dependent on application.

Here at my packaging machine, I want to demonstrate to you how they incorporated a cap nut. This is a standard cap nut. This is the bowl where the fasteners go in. This is a feeder and they used a cap nut, at the top, along with a lock washer to hold this cone in place so the fasteners don't build up and around the center of the machine. Here they used a standard cap nut with a lock washer to hold this cone in place.

You could also, in this application, use any of them. Here's a high crown, that works on there, and here's a double tall. You can use that on there. This is actually a lot easier because sometimes the small little fasteners that we put in this machine, they get underneath this cone a little bit. They jam under there and you have to take this off. That's why they make it so you can screw it off with your fingers. I just used the top round one.

That's pretty cool looking, but functionally it doesn't matter. The standard that comes with the machine, you can see here, the standard cap nut, finishes it off nice. Nothing can build on top during fastener jobs.

Little fasteners, like a two point five millimeter falling on top won't stay on top of this nut. It just falls off and that's just the design. I just wanted to show you on my packaging machine how that could be applied.

Using Jam Nuts Transcript

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Bob: This is what they call a jam nut. Jam nuts are about half the size of a regular finish nut in height. Otherwise the circumference and everything else is the same; they use the same wrench to apply the nut and to remove the nut.

Jam nuts, just to give you an idea what these do, you use two nuts together and then you tighten them up against each other. That's why they call them jam nuts: you use them together, you tighten them up, and I'll show you. I'll do a demonstration of that also, but typically that's how they're used. They're also used in tight areas where you can't have a full-size nut.

So I'm going to demonstrate the installation of the jam nuts that I have here. I have two of them. Jam nuts are also called thin nuts. The difference is that they're about half the size of a regular nut. You can see that here.

I'm going to put the first one on and then I'm going to put the second one on. I'm going to use an adjustable wrench to grab the bottom nut. Then I'm going to use the ratchet on the top to tighten it up.

Now I'm tightening them up against each other. That's one of the reasons why they call them jam nuts. Jam nuts are also available in nylon lock nuts where you don't have to use this situation. Obviously jam nuts can be used in many different applications such as if you have a tight area like in a car application where you don't have the room to use a regular sized nut. They'll use jam nuts or a single jam nut to get on the back of an alternator for a bracket; something along those lines. They also use the nylons in that situation.

So there's many different situations that you can use this in. They also sometimes want to put a jam nut like this to wherever it's keeping in place. They want this whole mechanism to be able to turn and move because they might be a moving arm on this bolt holding it in place. They also are used with shoulder bolts. So you'll find jam nuts used with shoulder bolts a lot on mechanical equipment. However you should know that if this is being used in a vibrating machine or something along those lines, these do have a tendency to loosen apart.

So if you want them to stay use some Loctite or some other locking product to keep them in place like they are here. And that's it.

How to Install Breakaway Shear Security Nuts Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today I'm going to demonstrate to you a breakaway security nut.

So, I have here a breakaway security nut. Basically, it has a nut welded or it’s an integral part, not even welded, of the process when they made this. There is a weak point right here at the neck. As pressure gets put on the nut sides to tighten it, that will break away from the security cone nut.

Now this is almost the same thing as a tri-groove nut but doesn't have the tri-grooves in it to be able to remove this nut down the road. There'll be only one way to remove this nut. You're going to have to take an abrasive and you have to cut the ends or put some type of groove in it that you can get a flat head screwdriver in it or a vise grip around it.

So I’m going to demonstrate this now - the installation - and how it breaks away. We're going to put a carriage bolt in here. I'm going to hand-turn this on, like that. I'm gonna snug it up. Now, this is for demonstration purposes.

These particular breakaway nuts are used a lot in street signs. So, go out in the street, look at the signs you'll find them there. They come in stainless steel. They also come in zinc. I don't know if they come in hot dipped galvanized; not sure about that. But check our site. If they're available, we have them up there.

I have this snug right now on this piece of steel and I'm going to start to tighten it. Once it reaches to a certain pressure it's going to break and you're going to watch that happen right here. Okay I'm just going to turn it and it's tightening, and the other side is turning on me so I'm going to hold it and now it's gonna pop off. And that's what you have when you're all said and done.

This is the nut (hex) part that snapped off. Now you're not going to get this off. Unless you use a grinder with an abrasive and you cut grooves in it and then take it off with a wrench. So it's a process.

Thanks for watching.

How to Remove Breakaway Shear Security Nuts Transcripts

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today I'm going to demonstrate to you how to remove a security nut. So, let's get started.

I have my cordless grinder with an abrasive wheel on it and I'm going to cut a groove on this side and the other side, so I can get a wrench onto this security nut that's made so you can't get anything on it.

No matter what you do, you can't grip it, so we have to create something to grip it. So, we're going to cut the edge there a little bit to flatten it out and see how we do. Here we go.

I did one side over here. I'm gonna do the other side now. Make sure you wear protection. You must have eye protection.

As you can see there, it's cut so we can get a wrench on it. That only took me about a minute - minute and a half. I'm going to stick a vise grips on it and we're going to turn it. There it is. I've taken it off. Took me a couple of minutes just to get it off.

That's how you would remove a security nut without any groove to use the tool on it. Thanks for watching.

Tri-Groove Nut Installation & Removal Transcript

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Bob: This one I have, this is called a tri groove nut. It has three grooves on it: one, two, three. There's three grooves on here. This is a security nut. This is to prevent anybody from trying to put a wrench on it. It's very hard to put a wrench on this nut.

You could probably put a vice grip on it and it'll hold it and you'll get it off but it's really a deterrent for anybody walking by who wants to try and take something. That's what it's mainly used for and it takes a special socket that goes over this nut and locks into those three grooves to be able to tighten it on.

Now I'm going to demonstrate the installation of a tri-groove nut. This is a security nut so if you want to keep something secure, such as the television, or whatever it may be from anybody removing it.

Tri-groove nuts have these three grooves and you need a special tool or socket to install it. You see they have those three grooves in it. So I'm going to demonstrate this right now, an installation of it.

I'm putting it through my 3/8 steel here. I'm going to screw it on so it snugs up and I'm going to tighten it up with this special tool. I need an adjustable on the other side. There we go.

Bear with me a minute...there we go. So I'm going to wedge it against the vice so I don't have to hold two hands. With these you can only do so much torqueing with it cause otherwise it wants to skip out.

Ok, that's the installation of a tri-groove nut. You can't put anything on this to take it off. It's all round. You have to have this tool to take it off. That's what's key to this nut. You can put this where you can't get to the head.

There are installations where you won't be able to access the head so you can't put anything on it. If you can then you would use a security screw with another type of security fastener or wrench to put it in place like a Torx with a pin in the center or something along those lines.

They also have tri-groove bolts that are available. I'm not sure if we have them on our website yet but they are available. You can't take a wrench like this and take it off because what happens is, it's been designed to where you just slide.

Now let's try the ultimate way to get this off: this is a vice grip. So if anything was going to take it off, it's going to be this. So let's see if we can do it. I haven't tried this but I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm trying to grab it on the top ridge of it and I'm gonna try and lock the vise grip; see if it holds.

Nah, see what happens once I apply pressure to it? It starts to slide off. So let's see if I can get it this way...no. There's not enough lip on the top to be able to use the vise grip to grab it. Even this way I can't grab it. So there's basically no way to get this off unless you have the tool. It's too smooth, there's nothing for the vice grip to grab. This is the tool, if you're going to use anything, to get this off.

You need the right tool, which is this: socket with the tri-grooves in the socket, and that would take it off and put it on. I'm going to take it off now. As you can see, you have the right tool...you can remove it.

And that's my demonstration of a tri-groove security nut.

Well Nuts | Review & Installation Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today I'm gonna show you how to install a well nut. So, let's get started.

I have here a well nut. They fall under the category of rivet nuts also. This is an EPDM neoprene nut and inside it has a brass threaded insert. So this works well in many different applications. We'll go through those applications, right after I give you the demonstration on installing this.

I'll use this as my material that I'm attaching. Now you can attach multiple materials together with this nut and I have here a 1/4"-20 pan head machine screw with a washer on top. As in a lot of applications, if you're going through, let's say, a motorcycle windshield and you want to fasten it to a bracket to hold it on which is a great application for this. You would push it through. You would put the screw in and then you would start to tighten this screw. I'm just going to use, now this doesn't mean you should use this for your application, depending on your application. I'm using this impact just to demonstrate to you and as you can see, it's tightening up there and that's the backside of the rivet nut or well nut.

And you don’t necessarily want to use this long of a screw, you can use a shorter screw. Again, this is demonstration to give you an idea what this looks like. That was the back and this is the front. So if you were installing glass, plexy glass, this is perfect. If you wanted to install something on your boat: fish finders or things of that nature, you can use this type of application.

So well nuts can be used in many different applications. Great for shock and vibration. Pull-through is an issue. It's not the best for that. If you use this in a saltwater environment, you're gonna have to change them. I don't know how many years (they will last) depends on how it holds up, but the EPDM will deteriorate over time in a saltwater environment. I just want to bring that to your attention, but you know, great for vibration applications, motorcycles, windshields and many other applications.

This is an awesome product. Thanks for watching.