What size is a tuning nut?
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What size is a tuning nut?
by Sir Doh » Sat May 12, 2012 7:53 am
In Europe, where everything is metric, and relatively simple ........
A friend of mine has a conga with a jammed nut. The mission is to replace the nut and clean (recut) the thread. I know that samba drums have 1/4 UNC threads, and the nut requires a 3/8" wrench. These are obviously bigger and the wrench looks like 1/2", but I cant get down to measure properly until next week.
What is the standard thread size for a tuning nut?
A friend of mine has a conga with a jammed nut. The mission is to replace the nut and clean (recut) the thread. I know that samba drums have 1/4 UNC threads, and the nut requires a 3/8" wrench. These are obviously bigger and the wrench looks like 1/2", but I cant get down to measure properly until next week.
What is the standard thread size for a tuning nut?
- Sir Doh
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Re: What size is a tuning nut?
by Thebreeze » Mon May 21, 2012 3:31 pm
Usually, it will be a 5/16" on the threaded part with a 1/2" nut. There are some bongos and congas that use beefier tuning lugs and nuts and have 3/8" on the threaded part with a 9/16" nut. As far as Threads per Inch for instance, I have some King Congas and they use the beefy tuning lugs and have 16 TPI. But I think the standard is more like 18 or 20 TPI. There is an Orchard hardware story by my house and over in the nuts and bolts section they have a sample board of different sizes of nuts and bolts with the TPI and sizes on it so that you can bring your own nuts and bolts to see what sizes yours actually are. Maybe your hardware store has something similar?
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Re: What size is a tuning nut?
by Sir Doh » Mon May 21, 2012 4:07 pm
The UK dumped inches in 1972. UNC nuts are exotic over here. Thanks for the info.
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Re: What size is a tuning nut?
by BMac » Tue May 22, 2012 2:27 am
This might be a little off-topic ... but ...
Whatever you do ... never spread grease on a chromed lug by greasing your fingers and spinning the lug threads against your skin like you might do with a bicycle wheel spoke. The chrome on chromed conga lugs gets stressed and flakes off. You can fish-hook a razor sharp little curled chrome flake deep into your finger if you grease chromed conga lugs with your fingers. It's nasty. It hurts. It's hard to remove. It gets infected.
Use a thick cloth or a piece of leather.
Learn from my mistake.
However you do it, if you keep your threads clean (free of broken chrome) and greased by occasional maintenance (once a year), then you can damn near tune a conga by matching the torque on the lugs ... which is useful in a loud environment.
Cheers!
BMac
Whatever you do ... never spread grease on a chromed lug by greasing your fingers and spinning the lug threads against your skin like you might do with a bicycle wheel spoke. The chrome on chromed conga lugs gets stressed and flakes off. You can fish-hook a razor sharp little curled chrome flake deep into your finger if you grease chromed conga lugs with your fingers. It's nasty. It hurts. It's hard to remove. It gets infected.
Use a thick cloth or a piece of leather.
Learn from my mistake.
However you do it, if you keep your threads clean (free of broken chrome) and greased by occasional maintenance (once a year), then you can damn near tune a conga by matching the torque on the lugs ... which is useful in a loud environment.
Cheers!
BMac
- BMac
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- Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:12 pm
- Location: USA
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