Making counter sink nuts

[saintrain]

Hi All!
I'm making a folding tripod using 1x3 triangle as legs. legs will unfold around a steel tube when set up. When not the legs will fold flat-ish.

There are two pairs of hinges on each side of the middle leg on top and bottom; think a M or W where the other two legs can swing in & out

I need through-bolts since wood screws won't work, but the hex nuts would interfere when closed, so

counter sink nuts! :-)

I chucked a 10-32 screw into my trusty ShopSmith 10-ER, jammed a couple of nuts close to the end, a washer, then the soon-to-be-conical nut last



The middle nut suffered on the 1st attempt, hence the washer. So



The washer is quite handy as a file guide, and a way to unscrew the cone. Here's the result



Yes McMaster has counter sink nuts; at US$13 a pop

Enjoy!
Doug

[earz]

That’s neat. So you’re just relying on friction of the countersink to keep the nut from spinning while tightening? A dab of valve lapping compound on the taper may provide a little more holding power if needed. Are you using any kind of thread locker to keep the screws from coming loose?

[saintrain]

Thanks Earz
If friction doesn't do it (I used a pretty coarse double-cut file, so lots of nut 'teeth'), I'll just slot the nuts and modify a screwdriver to fit around the screw.
There's not really a lot of meat in the hinge plate holes, so don't know about the loc-tite.
Doug

[saintrain]

Hi Earz!
Friction did it; snugged right up without tools or goop.
Cones are pretty grabby, I think
Doug