Cheap and cheerful Nut Spinners

For those of you not wishing to spend a packet on BA nut spinners from Markits et,al a chance conversation with a friend brough back a memory of a much missed GOG Member whom I have referred to in the past David Smith (known on various forums as DLOS). He was really a model engineer and he had mention 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.

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.



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 and 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 then 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 tun 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 flexed away from the cutting tool as I turned them. You don't need them for the tool to be functional but I can't help messing.