CE Chassis Bolts

[odourboy]

Thanks for the suggestions. For the Militec-1; is it the Militec-1 grease (in the little tube) or the Militec-1 synthetic metal conditioner (in the plastic bottle) you are recommending?

[phsyconoodler]

sure is expensive stuff! Better left for the gun-toting crowd.

There are lots of other suitable thread lubricants out there much,much cheaper and quite capable of doing the very low-tech job of lubing an amp chassis nut!

[ToneMerc]

Thanks for the suggestions. For the Militec-1; is it the Militec-1 grease (in the little tube) or the Militec-1 synthetic metal conditioner (in the plastic bottle) you are recommending?

The metal conditioner, the thing about the small bottle it's easy to work with and a small 1oz. bottle will last forever. I have a small unopened bottle that I will send you, I just have to put my hands on it. It might be in the race trailer, i'll try to go over and find it tomorrow.

Mike

[odourboy]

Thanks for the suggestions. For the Militec-1; is it the Militec-1 grease (in the little tube) or the Militec-1 synthetic metal conditioner (in the plastic bottle) you are recommending?

The metal conditioner, the thing about the small bottle it's easy to work with and a small 1oz. bottle will last forever. I have a small unopened bottle that I will send you, I just have to put my hands on it. It might be in the race trailer, i'll try to go over and find it tomorrow.

Mike

I'll take it!

[ToneMerc]

sure is expensive stuff!

There are lots of other suitable thread lubricants out there much,much cheaper and quite capable of doing the very low-tech job of lubing an amp chassis nut!

Neither is excellent customer service! Now I wouldn't recommend that a person who purchased a chassis go out and buy a jar of engine assembly lubricant to grease 4 screws, thats why I referenced the "cheaper" anti-seize compounds that you can find at any auto parts or hardware store in my earlier post. However, if I had a batch of 75 chassis and 300 screws that I wanted to prep, I might would be looking for alternatives.

TM

[super100]

Good suggestions from everyone.

Definitely, no power tools.

I've been using an old bottle of Duralube All Purpose Lubricant/Protectant,
that was sitting around.

What ToneMerc recommends is probably much better.

I try threading the bolts into the chassis before installing into the cab.

When installing into the cab, I wiggle the bolts around the inside of the
cabinet holes to make sure the bolt is going in straight.
Not sure this makes any difference, but it seems to help in my case.
I then slowly hand tighten the bolts and stop if I feel any resistance
back up a little and and try again.
This may seem like a lot of hassle but it beats the alternative.

[brentm]

What about swapping the stainless screws for zinc? I don't think the dissimilar metals would cause electrolysis in normal room temps. I also read that different harnesses of the mating stainless metals would be less prone to galling.

But a simple bulletin or tech note with the chassis seems sufficient. A little machine oil on the threads before hand tightening.

Still an excellent chassis at a great price. Thanks odourboy!!!

[odourboy]

What about swapping the stainless screws for zinc? I don't think the dissimilar metals would cause electrolysis in normal room temps. I also read that different harnesses of the mating stainless metals would be less prone to galling.

But a simple bulletin or tech note with the chassis seems sufficient. A little machine oil on the threads before hand tightening.

Still an excellent chassis at a great price. Thanks odourboy!!!

Thank you Brent. Yes - a non-stainless bolt (brass, steel, zinc-steel, etc.) would go a long ways to solving this since it's seems the SS on SS in particular that appears to be prone to galling. (Not guaranteed, as I read of one instance on this forum of SS galling in a steel weld-nut). However, it is a challenge is to find a cosmetically appealing bolt that doesn't cost the moon.

[John_P_WI]

Brian,

I didn't look at the pems - to determine the correct pem #s - in the 2 chassis that i bought from you from the first run, but it may be as simple as having your sheet metal fab guy install carbon steel pems with zinc coating which will be - ZI at the end of the pem specification string.

At my place of employment, we frequently use steel fasteners with zinc coatings into SS pems or SS fasteners into steel pems with zinc coating with no problems. We use power drivers in assembly too without lubrication, although some of the fasteners have vibratite or a nylon patch thread locker applied.

There are some inexpensive lubricants that leave a "dry" teflon type lubrication or even a wax type of film will help. It is just dry on dry, Stainless on Stainless which should be avoided.

John

[Structo]

After I had the initial problem I started lubing the threads with vaseline but that doesn't work so great.
I probably have some synthetic lube for my firearms in my closet some where I will try next.

[mdroberts1243]

The problem is fine machine threads,not metallurgy.

Lubricant should always be used and hand tighten.10-24 would be better for people who are in a hurry.

Machine threads are too exact and they have very little wiggle room.
I use rivet nuts and have zero issues.Oh,and aircraft stainless fasteners do not catch threads as easily as cheaper screws do.

"Rivet Nuts"... are these the same as weld nuts? Can you point me at them? I'd love to be able to use the floating PEMnuts but I haven't felt comfortable about enlarging the flanges on the chassis to accomodate them.

[tubedogsmith]

The problem is fine machine threads,not metallurgy.

Lubricant should always be used and hand tighten.10-24 would be better for people who are in a hurry.

Machine threads are too exact and they have very little wiggle room.
I use rivet nuts and have zero issues.Oh,and aircraft stainless fasteners do not catch threads as easily as cheaper screws do.

"Rivet Nuts"... are these the same as weld nuts? Can you point me at them? I'd love to be able to use the floating PEMnuts but I haven't felt comfortable about enlarging the flanges on the chassis to accomodate them.

I've used rivet nuts a lot. I get them from Marson along with the tool to install them.