Additional Handles for Markits Nut Spinners

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
There has been talk of BA spanner and Nut Spinners recently.

While doing a recent loco repair for a fellow Guild Member, I found that I was constantly swapping the head of my Markits nut spinner between 8BA and !2BA with the result that quite a few times it was the head of the nut spinner that unscrewed not the nut as I hadn't tightened it enough. I use the 8, 10 and 12BA heads most frequently and rarely use the 14BA and 16BA heads. Thinking about it, I don't think that I have ever used the 6BA head so far although I do have some 6BA hardware so I probably will at some point.

For those unfamiliar with what I am talking about this is the 'Markits' version

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I decided to make some spare handles so that I could have the 8, 10 and 12BA heads on individual handles and then fit the 14BA and 16BA to a double ended handle and second double handle for the 6BA and any other size that I might come up with at some point. In the meantime I will make a rounded end insert just to finish it off.

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I suspect that Markits use 10mm hex bar to make theirs. I did mine the longer way using 10mm round and then milling flats on them. Of course I had no sooner cut them all and drilled for the thread when I found a length of 10mm brass hex, but isn't that always the way.

If anyone wishes to do something similar with theirs, the thread on the Markits heads is M5 x 0.8
 
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Stephen Freeman

Western Thunderer
It's a long time since I used Romford driving wheels, am I to understand that you cannot use the special screwdriver anymore or am I missing something? I still have two of the screwdrivers. In 7mm Bassett Lowke used a similar nut, my father adapted a normal screwdriver to cope with them.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
It's a long time since I used Romford driving wheels, am I to understand that you cannot use the special screwdriver anymore or am I missing something? I still have two of the screwdrivers. In 7mm Bassett Lowke used a similar nut, my father adapted a normal screwdriver to cope with them.
Hi Stephen,

I have no idea, these are BA nut spinners rather than the Romford Screwdrivers (I too still have one of those, which I used to tighten reversed crankpin bushes in 7mm. When I remember to drill appropriate holes in them).
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
That's very nice Rob. Two questions please:

1. Are these truly BA sized. I know nuts vary but if the spinner's correct that's a good start!
2. How deep is the recess for the nut? I ask this because on short screws my commercial nut spinners (Eileens?) are too deep for the nut to engage and I sometimes I put two nuts up there, which is fiddly and more to fall out.

Thanks.

Mike
 

Stephen Freeman

Western Thunderer
Hi Stephen,

I have no idea, these are BA nut spinners rather than the Romford Screwdrivers (I too still have one of those, which I used to tighten reversed crankpin bushes in 7mm. When I remember to drill appropriate holes in them).
Hi,
Didn't know they did 7mm stuff as well, normally when I need something like this I reach for a pin vice.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
That's very nice Rob. Two questions please:

1. Are these truly BA sized. I know nuts vary but if the spinner's correct that's a good start!
2. How deep is the recess for the nut? I ask this because on short screws my commercial nut spinners (Eileens?) are too deep for the nut to engage and I sometimes I put two nuts up there, which is fiddly and more to fall out.

Thanks.

Mike

Good afternoon Mike,

They are marked BA on one side and metric on the other so I suspect that they are actually metric based. That said they are a pretty good fit on all those that I have tried them on.

Depth wise they are relatively deep - they vary between 10 and 12mm deep.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi,
Didn't know they did 7mm stuff as well, normally when I need something like this I reach for a pin vice.
Me too, but sometimes a pin vice head was too big to fit in the space around the nut. I saw these at a show a few years ago noting the much slimmer head, so I bought a set.
 

Len Cattley

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob, I have looked in Eileen's Emporioum web-site and they have a set of nut spinners 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 BA for £29.80 each. It that any good?

Len
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob, I have looked in Eileen's Emporioum web-site and they have a set of nut spinners 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 BA for £29.80 each. It that any good?

Len
Hi Len,
Those sound like the ones that I bought (mine came from Eileen's). But they have gone up £10 since I bought mine.
 

OzzyO

Western Thunderer
Hello Len, all,

with a bit of luck this link should take you Markits.


ATB

OzzyO.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
For those of you not wishing to spend a packet on BA nut spinners from Markits et, al, a chance conversation with a friend brought back a memory of much missed GOG and WT Member, David Smith (known on various forums as DLOS). David had mentioned in a posting a few years ago, that he had made BA nut spinners from appropriately sized caps screws using the hex head as the socket.

It having been brought to the fore and having a spare couple of hours last night, I rummaged through my screw box and found that an M4 and M5 cap head screws were just right for 8 and 10 BA and a couple of grub screws suited 12 and 14BA.

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Although I used the lathe they could be made by anyone with the ability to drill and tap metric threads. I did turn down the heads of the cap screws but again nothing that couldn't be achieved by putting it in a drill chuck and applying a file.

A tip worth mentioning: If you use grub screws for any of them, in order to get enough threads to engage the grub screw, you need to drill the hole a bit deeper. This means that the head of the grub screw wont stay at the end. My solution was, once threaded, I screwed the grub screw in as far as it would go. Then with a bit of brass rod I measured how far in the head of the grub screw was from the end (1.5mm and 4.5mm respectively in my case).

I cut a couple of short lengths of brass rod that would slip inside the threads (2mm I think I used) This allows you to tighten the grub screws against the bottom of the hole while the head is level with the end. I was planning on Loctite-ing them but I don't think that they need it.

The handle parts were made from a length of bent 6.35mm brass bar which equates to a 1/4 inch (I must have bought it as quarter inch but any suitable sized bar would do. Hopefully it's the last bent piece in my stocks as there is nothing more irritating than trying to turn something that you have to lose half it's thickness before you get it to run concentric.
It's not visible in the photo but the bend in the bar meant that the grooves look a bit like Zebra stripes, in that go they go thick then thin as the bar moved away from the cutting tool as I turned them. You don't need the grooves for the tool to be functional but I can't help messing.
 
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