Stopping wingnut running off end of threaded bar

[spam.goes.here2]

I bought a parrot toy yesterday which is basically a stainless steel cube held together by 3 lengths of 5mm threaded stainless bar with 6 wingnuts.

I assumed it has been made so the wing nuts couldn't run off the end of the bar - but not.

Parrots LOVE playing with these things, and mine can open those 'chain link' things with the hexnut in the middle quite happily (until their perch palls off and then all hell breaks loose - we don't use those links anymore!). The birds are also VERY strong (large Macaws) and can crack open almonds and walnuts with no trouble.

What's the best way to stop the wingnuts running off the end of the bar, but still able to run freely back and forth (the idea being to hide a treat inside the cube and let them open it up)?

Drop of superglue around the end threads? Cold chisel and heavy thwack? Hacksaw through the end of the bar and try to force it apart a smudule?

TIA as always

[John]

Pair of Mole Grips and give each end thread a good tight squeeze so as to distort the thread pitch, that should stop Polly from removing the wing nuts!

HTH

John

[The Wanderer]

I'd go with spoiling the thread on the end of the rod.

Oh, and thanks for that brief but fascinating glimpse into the world of parrots!

[spam.goes.here2]

Certainly did! Thanks - simple when you know how, innit! Ta muchly

[Baz]

Angle Grinder!! Trim his beak!!

[Mike Dodd]

Aye, brute force rules here.

Anecdotal, perhaps, but we used to have an African Grey, "one previous owner", in a cage with a knurled brass nut against a door strike-plate to keep the door closed, and a padlock looped between the door and the cage frame.

Soon work out why...

The parrot was very adept at unscrewing the nut, from inside the cage, using the lower beak to spin the nut. Hence the padlock as back-up.

Soon worked out that we had to remove the key from the padlock as well...

[Clot]

thought it was pein.

[spam.goes.here2]

They'd learn to use their claws! Fast learners and VERY determined as the poster above relates with his African Grey - said to be the smartest of all birds.

Compltely OT - one night I crept into my study (where the birds sleep) to sit in front of the PC in the dark, lit only by the ghostly glow from the screen. As I battered away at the keyboard a voice came from nowhere "What do you think YOU'RE doing?" it growled. It was the bloody macaw. I nearly sh*t. First time I'd ever heard it, and out it came - perfectly formed. Just like something else nearly did.

[Dave Liquorice]

Round off the end of the threaded bar with a hammer. I wouldn't like to say if Macaws will still force the nuts off by recutting the threads on the bar though.

I was going to sat "prene" the end of the bar but when I checked the spolling and looked in a dictionary that "rounding off of metal by bashing it" meaning didn't pop up.

[TheOldFellow]

peen. as in ball-peen hammer.

[nightjar]

Pien is a modern name for the part of a hammer opposite the face. Peen and pene are older names, from which peen or pene also mean striking metal to thin it. I would normally describe rounding off the end of a metal rod with a hammer as peening over.

Colin Bignell

[The Medway Handyman]

Coat the end of the bar in.... pollyfiller:-)

[Al]

Be warned - If an order of a tap and die set from Screwfix arrives for Mrs P Parrot, you've been sussed.

Al.

[Dave Liquorice]

Ta, I found pene as in ball & hammer but no definition of the "peening" over. I initially wanted to use "preen over" as bit of humour but wanted to ensure I got the right word for the joke to work. As this expression is a memory from my pre double figure years of age, I decided it might be a inaccurate memory. As it turns out it's just my bad spolling. B-)

[Clint Sharp]

In message , [e-mail] writes

You are Wacqui Jacqui Smith's husband and I claim my five pounds... (Don't worry, you can get it back on expenses)

[Dave]

Peening was regularly used in the aerospace industry years ago. It was used to stop an ordinary engineering nut from removing itself from a bolt. The thread was cut down so that about 2 threads extended from the nut and a V shaped tool was used to deform the threads down to the top surface of the nut. This was considered as a class one locking, along with split pinning and wire locking, but lots faster.

Dave

[Dave Starling]

The solutions given so far seem semi permanent and what if you need to remove item from said bar for what ever reason. Perhaps you could look on fleabay for a single nut with nylon insert or scrounge one from an ironmonger. It would have to be a parrot with a spanner for a beak that was able to remove one of those! If you want to be sure to be sure, put two back to back with a split washer between.

Dave

[Mike Dodd]

A Nylok?, nah, that's like a red-rag-to-a-bull as far as a parrot is concerned. It'd have it out in a jiffy

[Bob Eager]

Two nuts locked together?

[Dave Liquorice]

I don't think a Macaw would have any trouble at all in removing a nyloc nut.

Anyway if you had read the OP properly you would see that there is a requirement for the nut to run freely on the threaded rod but not to come off the end.