Speed nuts

[Timberwolf]

are nothing new....Here's an outside caliper showing a patent date of 1867 with a "fast adjustment" feature..I had no idea they were that old......

[daddo]

So they were just as impatient as we are today!?  


 Makes sense though. The guy that came up with the six shooter was hailed by those who couldn't wait to shoot 6 to 1 before reloading.


Kind of wandered off there didn't I?    

[Timberwolf]

So they were just as impatient as we are today!?  


 Makes sense though. The guy that came up with the six shooter was hailed by those who couldn't wait to shoot 6 to 1 before reloading.


Kind of wandered off there didn't I?    

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I would say they were every bit as impatient as we are today....maybe more so...This one is a departure from the speed nuts today tho...it functions on a different principal..I don't know the proper "term" for it but I call it a "half thread".....unlike a "split nut".....and you have to "rock the nut" to disengage it from the threaded shaft.

[Bill_Houghton]

Do you mean this type of speed nut (image courtesy of Lee Valley)?
[attachment=19948]
They're still in use, and fairly common on those four-way clamps often used for clamping up picture and other frames, like Lee Valley's, here.

It's probably one of the simpler ways to make a speed nut - much simpler than the spring steel quick-release nuts I find on my Starrett calipers, for instance.  It is cool and nifty to find one on an 1867 tool.  Heck, it's cool and nifty to find a tool with an 1867 patent date on it.

[Timberwolf]

Do you mean this type of speed nut (image courtesy of Lee Valley)?

They're still in use, and fairly common on those four-way clamps often used for clamping up picture and other frames, like Lee Valley's, here.

It's probably one of the simpler ways to make a speed nut - much simpler than the spring steel quick-release nuts I find on my Starrett calipers, for instance.  It is cool and nifty to find one on an 1867 tool.  Heck, it's cool and nifty to find a tool with an 1867 patent date on it.

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Bill, I once has some clamps with that design and have made nuts like that by just holding a drill bit on an angle until half the inside threads were gone.,But you can't "reef down" hard on them or the threads will strip completely out. OK for really light duty tho

...One thing that is surprising to me tho, is how they made metal stamps that left such good impressions in fairly hard steel...even making a letter stamp that small seems like quite an achievement.