| Fig. 17. | Fig. 18. |
Fig. 19.
A very common arrangement for locking a nut is shown at (a), fig. 18. C is an ordinary nut, and B one having half the thickness of C. B is first screwed up tight so as to act on the bolt, as shown at (b), fig. 17. C is then screwed on top of B. When C is almost as tight as it can be made, it is held by one spanner, while B is turned back through a small angle with another. The action of the nuts upon the bolt and upon one another is now as shown at (b), fig. 18. It will be seen that the nuts are wedged tight on to the bolt, and that this action is independent of the tension W in the bolt. The nuts will, therefore, remain tight after the tension in the bolt is removed.
It is evident that if the nuts are screwed up in the manner explained, the outer nut C will carry the whole load on the bolt; hence C should be the thicker of the two nuts. In practice, the thin nut, called the lock nut, is often placed on the outside, for the reason that ordinary spanners are too thick to act on the thin nut when placed under the other.
Another very common arrangement for locking a nut is shown in fig. 19. A is the bolt and B the nut, the lower part of which is turned circular. A groove C is also turned on the nut at this part. The circular part of the nut fits into a circular recess in one of the parts connected by the bolt. Through this part passes a set screw D, the point of which can be made to press on the nut at the bottom of the groove C. D is turned back when the nut B is being moved, and when B is tightened up, the set screw is screwed up so as to press hard on the bottom of the groove C. The nut B is thus prevented from slackening back. The screw thread is turned off the set screw at the point where it enters the groove on the nut.
The use of the groove for receiving the point of the set screw is this: The point of the set screw indents the nut and raises a bur which would interfere with the free turning of the nut in the recess if the bur was not at the bottom of a groove. Additional security is obtained by drilling a hole through the point of the bolt, and fitting it with a split pin E.
Locking arrangements for nuts are exceedingly numerous, and many of them are very ingenious, but want of space prevents us describing them. We may point out, however, that many very good locking arrangements have the defect of only locking the nut at certain points of a revolution, say at every 30°. It will be noticed that the two arrangements which we have described are not open to this objection.
Exercise 18.—Draw, full size, a plan, front elevation, and side elevation of the arrangement of nuts shown in fig. 18, for a bolt 7⁄8 inch diameter.
Exercise 19.—Draw the plan and elevation of the nut and locking arrangement shown in fig. 19. Make also an elevation looking in the direction of the arrow. Scale 6 inches to a foot.