In article ,
Andy Dingley wrote:
On 12 Feb 2005 12:21:03 +0100, Jon Haugsand
wrote:

Please forgive my ignorance, but what really _is_ a "cheap pressed
steel acorn nut"?

An acorn nut is a nut with a blind hole and a rounded end. It stops
the threaded rod poking through as a hazard.

Nuts are made by an automatic capstan lathe. Acorn nuts (turned from
solid) are expensive to make this way, because they need to be held
one way round for threading, then rotates to turn the acorn. This
makes them cost several times what a plain nut does.

This type of cheap acorn nut is pressed from thin sheet. A hole is
punched and drawn into a rough funnel, which can be threaded. A
"flower" shape is then blanked out and the petals bent together to
form the acorn.

And -- if you want to see what the other type looks like, check
out the following URL:

http://www2.d-and-d.com/misc/NUTS/acorn-nuts.jpg

This particular one has a 1/2-20 thread, so it is significantly larger
than the one shown in the puzzle, as well as higher quality.

It is a quick-and-dirty setup -- just the one image cropped to
reasonable size. No text, no description.

FWIW -- this is a pair out of the box which I had to order to
obtain one for the handwheel on my Clausing tailstock. It had the thin
lock nut, but no acorn nut, which led to it working loose regularly, and
to occasionally gouging my wrist. I'll figure out other uses for the
rest of the box. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

P.S. Out of curiosity -- now that you have images, what is the term
for them in Norway? And what newsgroup are you following this
in? I'm in rec.crafts.metalworking, which explains why I am
familiar with the acorn nuts, and why I happen to have some on
hand to photograph.
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