At 01:12 PM 8/26/2007, Ian White GM3SEK wrote:
>M
> >Maybe a flat washer and a spring washer would stop the bottom bolts
> >coming loose. Blue loctite will certainly stop them coming loose.
> >
>Blue Loctite is excellent for many antenna jobs. It lubricates as you
>tighten the threads (prevents galling of stainless steel), locks the
>threads together so they won't vibrate loose, and seals them against
>corrosion... yet you can still unscrew the fastenings for maintenance.
>Clever stuff.
>
>However, threadlock is only a special type of glue, so it won't work if
>the threads in the rotor casting are loose or corroded. The answer then
>is to re-thread the holes to a larger size, and use *red* Loctite (the
>permanent locking grade) to fix lengths of stainless steel studding into
>the casting. The two parts of the rotor can then be held together by
>nyloc nuts, on the underside where they're easy to work on.
Having found this out the hard way... the folks that make Loc-tite
only have 3 or 4 colors (red, green, blue, purple, and maybe orange
or yellow) for dozens of different products, not to mention that
other manufacturers of these wonderful materials use different color codes.
But, there are basically three "permanence" grades:
lock forever, use heat to remove
locks fairly permanently, but you can wrench remove it
locks less permanently, basically keeps it from vibrating out, pretty
easy to break loose
And, there are three application methods (depending on the stuff)
1) Apply to threads, let dry, install (you can actually buy
bolts/screws with it preapplied!)
2) Apply to threads, install while wet, cures in place
3) Install fastener, apply stuff, wicks in by capillary action after
assembly (real handy for "staking" after assembly of a complex assembly)
That gives you 9 possibilities already, and there's actually a lot more.
Jim, W6RMK
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