#Nutsert install

We screwed a bolt into the nutsert to which we applied torque. You can’t replace them with an AN4 nut plate because the bolt has coarse threads and it is hard to find a 6-inch-long AN4 bolt for a reasonable price. Many RV-8 builders (myself included) have installed a hatch in that enclosure to provide battery access-but unless you made it particularly large, you can’t get the battery out because you can’t reach those nuts. This means that in order to remove the battery, you have to remove the entire rear baggage compartment enclosure. The hold-down bolts for the rear-mounted battery in my RV-8 are simply long 1/4-20 hardware-store bolts that run the height of the battery and are fastened with non-captive nuts on the bottom. I recently had an application for a blind nut that was not going to be solved by anything but a nutsert. (Illustration: Courtesy of McMaster-Carr) It is possible to find serrated nutserts that may have more resistance to turning and can handle more torque, but they’re expensive. Once they do this, not only do you no longer have a working joint, but the fastener might be stuck in the spinning nutsert-now you’ve got a real problem. The problem with nutserts is that they tend to spin-that is, once you have installed and pulled them, they don’t have enough grip on the surface to prevent a careless mechanic from putting enough torque on them while installing a fastener that they lose their hold and spin in the hole. When it comes to aircraft, I suggest trying anything else first before you turn to these things.

#Nutsert install

Nutserts-and that’s what I’m going to call these things from here on-allow you to install a blind nut fastener in the field, after everything has been closed up, so they are often used as a last idea for repairs-with the emphasis on last. Traditional nut plates require you to have that access, so they have to be installed during construction. (I’m sure there’s a formal product name in there, but I can’t muster the energy to look it up.) These vile little devices offer the opportunity to install a blind nut plate equivalent without having to access the back side (or inside) of the workpiece. Also called rivet nuts, threaded inserts or rivnuts. Let me say right up front that I hate nutserts. A plain nutsert installed in a piece of 1/8-inch-thick scrap for testing.