I'm looking for spacers, about 1/2 inch diameter, circular. 1/8th inch thick with a central hole to clear a 6BA bolt, so roughly 1/10th inch.
Material to be smooth and reasonably friction free, so not rubber, but plastic, nylon, brass, ali or something similar.
Any bright ideas? something commercially available? I've searched eBay using countless terms, but the hole is usually too big, and I don't want to sleeve. There must be something out there designed for something I haven't thought of.
Well yes and no.
There are a lot of model wheels and pulleys that sort of fit the bill but nothing without modification
OTOH this is not a hard thing to make.
From 1/8" plastic sheet.
Basically drill holesin some rough squares, bolr them together in a stack, mount in drill chuck, mount drilling vice, spin and sand till circular.
A lathe makes it even easier: 1" round bar in chuck, drill and then part off 1/8" sections..
I made something similar for use on a pin hinge. Hole cutter of the rrequired diameter and a drill bit for he centre. I had some scrap polycarbonate sheeting which I used.
It depends how close a fit you want on the 6BA bolt. M3 is slightly larger, so M3 x 12mm mudguard washers might have the right diameters, but you would need a stack of four to get the thickness.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I was trying to avoid making something, mainly because I'd bollox it. Having said that, they don't actually need to be circular, and I have some scrap 1/8th perspex which may suffice, cut into 1/2 inch squares.
Colin's suggestion is perfect. I knew someone would suggest something I hadn't thought about. M3 12mm mudguard washers, 1mm thick is great, because I can experiment with thickness using 2, 3 or possibly 4 at a time. I have ordered a pack of 10 at ?1.38 including postage.
Cheers!
Check Ebay for PCB spacers. Although they may be more tube than washer shaped. You can't just use a few suitable washers to give the spacing you require?
News pretended :
I know you said not rubber, but they are not rubber - tap washers?
Harry Bloomfield explained :
Pick your sheet material and drill some 20mm holes with a hole cutter.
In message , News writes
Not helpful to you but I use short lengths of blue poly water pipe for spacing such things as trellis from brickwork etc.
Obviously since we do not know the actual use I am tempted to that the mechanical stability of anything turning on a 6BA bolt is not going to be very good at all, hence the lack of washers of the needed type. I was thinking about some engineering company who punches holes out of ally, the bits punched out with some work and a hole drilled might fit the bill if several were used together.
You say no sleeves, but in my experience, some kind of large chunky boss shaped lump of brass for the centre and less robust washers around that might be easier to source. Brian
In message , Tim Lamb writes
A useful future tip though :-)
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Washers would be OK, but what I couldn't find, until Colin's suggestion of mudguard washers, was something with a large enough diameter yet small hole.
In message , Harry Bloomfield writes
Tap washers was my first thought too, but they're a bit too 'grippy'.
Making things you can't find elsewhere is what milliput is for :-)
In my Yoof old wooden cotton reels dipped in creosote...ah. them were the days.
That's an extraordinary business model. The business owner is taking say
10p worth of product, packing it and posting it for say 60p, and paying ebay or amazon about 10-20p. Leaving say 50p profit to pay for labour and overheads. Somebody must be working awfully hard to make a living.In message , The Natural Philosopher writes
In my yoof old wooden cotton reels were used to make tanks :-)
Yes, I agree, and the amount of 'stuff' available, following that model, is staggering. However, to me it is worthwhile. Local ironmonger does not have anything suitable, and an exploratory trip to B&Q et al is a ninety mile round trip.
Its probably a bloke who comes home every night spends an hour putting stuff in envelopes and makes a couple of grand a year extra on his salary.
There were enough left over for that, too.
Today, who even owns a sewing machine?
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