30 Dec
2009
30 Dec
'09
10:55 p.m.
On 30 Dec 2009 at 21:10, Tony Duell wrote:
Do you mean Whitworth (as in BSW)? Those are quite common over here.
And I'll lay odds that almost everyone here has
used a 1/4" BSW screw
at some point.
Yes, Whitworth. My slip-up.
Can you get BA fasteners? Those were very commonly
used on small
machinery, electrical stuff, etc over here. A lot are still in use.
They are not hard to get here.
Several places carry them, including British Screws and Fasteners in
Lyon, NY. I also imagine that some of the hard-bitten British auto
gearheads know where to find a ready supply.
I can get the connectors I mentioned from, e.g.
Digikey. OK, I have to
pay the shipping charges, but I can get them. But I've not found a
company who will sell me a small quantity of UNC fasteners and send
them to England ('small quantity' means, say, 100 off 1/2" 6-32 bolts.
Not just 1 of them). Suprisingly the taps and dies can be found over
here. I can make nuts (although it's a lot of work to mill a piece of
rod to a hexagon and tap the hole), but making screws with the right
heads is a lot harder.
A quick web search turns up this fellow who seems to carry them in a
wide variety of material, heads and lengths and sells in small
quantity.
Michael Peters
Surplus Supplies
Caunton
Newark
Notts
NG23 6AJ
Tel: 01636 636735
Surplusmpeters at aol.com
There are probably others.
FWIW, I did a quick check and I can get all of the mentioned
threadings from at least one outfit in Shenzhen. I'd be surprised if
it were otherwise.
All the best,
Chuck