[Shop-talk] Cotter Usage

[John Innis]

About 1000 years ago when I was in A&P school I was taught to do style #2.
THe main reason is that someone will eventually need to reach their hand
into a tight spot past the cotter pin you have installed.  If you used
style #2, you are much less likely to leave sharp edges that will shred the
hands of the next guy who has to work on this thing.  I actually had an
instructor who would look for stuff like this and if she found that you
left a sharp edge somewhere she would deliberately run you hand across it
in a way as to cause just enough damage to get the point across.  Not a
lesson I needed to have repeated.

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 11:40 AM Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net> wrote:

> Got some 'quiet time' before I have to go look after my mom, and I
> thought I'd pose an arcane question to the List:
>
> What do y'all consider the proper way to use a cotter key/pin? I've
> watched the pros on TV--Edd China, Ant Anstead, Goblin Garage,
> Fantomworks, etc. and the 'Chop it/Channel It/Drop a Crate Engine In
> It/Bag It/Put Huge Dubs and a Gaudy Paint Job On It and Call It a Day'
> hotrod builders, and they all do it a bit different. Usually, it's 'Type
> 1'--see terrible hand-drawn 'art' attached (using a stub axle for
> example)--but I gave it a lot of thought and wondered 'Is that the best
> way?' Thinking it through, yes, any way you put a cotter in and secure
> it will do the job; i.e. keep the nut from coming completely undone.
> However, when safety-wiring--a skill I sorta learned maintaining my own
> aircraft--you're supposed to always wire so as to pull in the tightening
> direction, to resist any turning at all of the nut/bolt. So, when
> applicable--e.g. on castellated nuts--I torque until the cotter will
> just fit in the hole (drawing# 2), situated 'sideways'--where you can't
> see the eye of the cotter from the side--snug against the side of the
> nut's slot so as to resist the nut turning at all. Then, I bend the
> upper half of the cotter back over the nut/spindle, and snip the lower
> half at the edge of the nut, figuring anything longer than that isn't
> doing anything (plus it just looks neater IMO, and may be easier to
> remove if necessary).
>
> FWIW, my late father, who was an auto shop teacher and had a few
> psychology classes under his belt said I was 'stuck at the anal
> retentive stage' of child development; I (think) he was kidding.
>
> Bob
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-- 
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