[Shop-talk] Cotter Usage

[Jim Franklin]

I use type 1 because I never want to reduce my redundancy to zero. By clipping you now have only one tail securing the cotter pin. I'll win the lottery while being struck by lightning sooner than a cotter pin will fail in this way, but given the choice between two paths in a wood, I'll scramble up the virgin hillside. Also, clipping leaves its own sharper edge.

I like to wind the tails back on themselves so the sharp edge is encapsulated. I do this about 100 times more often in theory than in practice. :-)

jim

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 12:36 PM, 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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