Improvised dropout adjusters

[Alembicbassman]

After it was pointed out in a previous post that my horizontal dropouts were missing the adjusters I had a rummage around and came up with these.

25mm M3 slot head bolt with domed nut. Holes were re-threaded with an M3 hand tapper as they had filled with crud and rust over 20 years or so.

 

[fixedfixer]

Excellent job, looks good. I also like the way you've made these yourself rather than getting an 'off the shelf' item. That's the spirit.

 

[raindog]

Very neat, but won't they shake loose? The "proper" ones are spring tensioned so the setting isn't lost.

 

[gbb]

The only potential problem you have there Alem is that when you try to undo the screws...the nut may spin off leaving the stud in place. Easily rectified by spinning on a plain nut first then tightening the two nuts together. Then when you undo the stud in the future, you use the plain nut and the domed nut will stop it spinning off.
As raindog says, if you're concerned about it coming loose, i'd put some low strength locking compound on it. trouble is, if you havnt any...your good cheap fix is going to become a little more expensive when you buy some locking compound.

 

[Alembicbassman]

. I tried springs from a ball point pen, but they were a little too long, will try to find some shorter ones.

I do have locking compound and some standard 6mm nuts, I'll see which works best.

 

[jimboalee]

Whip them out again and put a nylon nut ( from a model aircraft hobby shop ) on as a lock nut up against the dropout.

When you've got the settings correct, tighten the nylon nut to lock the metal bolt.

In fact, you could have used nylon bolts, they are not load bearing, and they won't corrode.