Shopsmith T-bolts

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BuckeyeDennis
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Shopsmith T-bolts

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

I just got the weekly-special email from Shopsmith, and see that they are running a special on T-nuts and T-bolts. I love the T-nuts, but already have all I need. But a few T-bolts (555911) might come in handy.

Looking at the little bitty photo in the email, it appears that the T-bolt is just a T-nut with a threaded stud "permanently mounted". Does anyone know how that mounting is accomplished? The possibilities that come to mind are staking and Loctite, if the stud is a piece of fully-threaded rod. Or maybe it's a press-in stud in an unthreaded hole?
ricksss96
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Re: Shopsmith T-bolts

Post by ricksss96 »

Your question got my curiosity up, so did a little searching and came up with this:
http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/beginning ... 16352.html

A picture of the backside is in there, maybe it can answer your question.
-Rick
tucsonguy
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Re: Shopsmith T-bolts

Post by tucsonguy »

It's some kind of pressure fitting - under very high pressure the threaded rod is deformed to lock to the t-bar. I've never had one slip.
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Shopsmith T-bolts

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

Thanks guys. The picture below from the thread linked by ricksss96, originally posted by jsburger, certainly seems to show a pressed-in stud with a small head.
T-bolt.jpg
T-bolt.jpg (141.37 KiB) Viewed 11611 times
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benush26
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Re: Shopsmith T-bolts

Post by benush26 »

Dennis,
I made a bunch of sliders using steel flat bar [with thinner nuts welded on to make up the depth of SS machined aluminum] (wanted the ability to use magnets on the tnuts; plus they were much cheaper to make than buy and modify SS’s) . A local friend saw them asked me to make ones with just a center tapped 3/8 - 16 hole. He had a 520 and loved making jigs for the fence. Used ready thread to make stems of custom lengths. The threaded stems allowed him to easily attach and remove those jigs. He switched from red to blue thread locker once he determined the lengths he wanted. He did paint the flatbar with Rustoleum to reduce steel - aluminum interface.
Hope that helps.

Be well,
Ben
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