3d printing for boats.

[Project_Mayhem]

I have not decided if they should be called Nutsets or Nutters.

Anyone who had gone through the ordeal of rebedding the stanchions on a mk2 Catalina 30 will likely agree with me that it is the most frustrating endeavor to be undertaken on a C30. Tiny little nuts that need to be placed in a small gap beyond the reach of a fingertip.
These are captive nut holders with a short handle. The nut pocket is blind so that once the screw is threaded onto the nut, it will be pushed off so that you can then use a box end wrench to firmly hold the nut to finish tightening the screw. I have modified the print to have a hole in the handle so that you can tie it to your wrist for all of those times it will slip out of your hand before the nut is finally secured.

View attachment 233486

Wouldn't tape on the back of a wrench hold the nut and save a step?

 

[Hayden Watson]

Wouldn't tape on the back of a wrench hold the nut and save a step?

I tried tape over a box end wrench, butyl tape and everything else I could think of. These were #8 nuts and were back in a very narrow gap that I could just get a single finger into. It took me several days of frustration and a couple of dozen nuts to get the four that I needed to actually stick. I think I will be modifying them to have a finger hole for better control of elevation and angle.

 

[Hayden Watson]

I have come up with a rev-2 design that will give better control. Now I need to test them out to make sure they have the necessary reach to get to those @$%#&*@#$ nuts.

 

[thinwater]

I have not decided if they should be called Nutsets or Nutters.

Anyone who had gone through the ordeal of rebedding the stanchions on a mk2 Catalina 30 will likely agree with me that it is the most frustrating endeavor to be undertaken on a C30. Tiny little nuts that need to be placed in a small gap beyond the reach of a fingertip.
These are captive nut holders with a short handle. The nut pocket is blind so that once the screw is threaded onto the nut, it will be pushed off so that you can then use a box end wrench to firmly hold the nut to finish tightening the screw. I have modified the print to have a hole in the handle so that you can tie it to your wrist for all of those times it will slip out of your hand before the nut is finally secured.

View attachment 233486

Why not use a wrench with a dab of butyl or tape to hold the nut? One step. I've even had wrenches duct taped to battens to sticks before.

But I like it. The idea of a blind box wrench is neat.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Why not use a wrench with a dab of butyl or tape to hold the nut? One step. I've even had wrenches duct taped to battens to sticks before.

But I like it. The idea of a blind box wrench is neat.

I used all of those techniques and more to rebed the stanchions on my C30. All of them had problems with the nut falling out just as you thought you were getting somewhere. These re sized so that the nuts snap into them and will not come out until the screw thread pushes it out. The problems that I found with all of the other methods is that the nuts are so small that there is just not much surface to grip.