thickness of aluminum at thinnest point in a MHS v1 Ribbed V-Grooved extension?

[Jamonk Arturan]

Greetings everyone. I have been lurking on the boards for some time learning and planning out a build before finally taking the plunge and ordering parts back in the fall. Finally, in the past month or so I've been working (slowly) on actually building my first saber.

For this saber I am using TCSS chassis disks and 4-40 all thread to build my chassis. I have almost completed it, however I have discovered that the brass 4-40 nuts overlap the edge of my chassis disk style 3 pieces by about 1mm (meaning the chassis will not fit into the Ribbed V-Grooved section they need to without a small modification).

I figure there are two ways I can go about it:
1: I can simply sand off the offending 1mm edge of the brass hex nuts (simplest -and safest- approach, but I am worried this may make future disassembly/re-assembly of the chassis more problematic since I will be rounding off the hex nut)
-or-
2: I may be able to (*very* carefully) file out a tiny 1mm channel inside each side of my ribbed v-grooved section to provide the needed room for the hex nuts to slide in as they are now (this option would mean no damage to hex nuts making future disassembly/re-assembly of the chassis less problematic, and might also have the added benefit of discouraging the chassis from trying to rotate as I tighten down the sections locking it in place. Of course I know this would come at the risk of filing too much material away from the part and creating a hole/structurally weaken the part if I am not extremely careful).

This brings me to my question: can anyone who has knowledge tell me what the measurements are between the thinnest outer part of the ribbed v-grooved extension (in the valley of the v-grooves) and the inner wall of the pieces?
At present I can estimate the thickness, but since I've not actually cut a hole into one of these sections before I'm not sure if my estimate is terribly accurate and I assume there are multiple veterans that have had experience using this extension piece in various ways.
Thanks in advance for the insight.

[lmshutt]

If I understand the problem the nuts extend past the edge of the chasis.

Could you glue the nuts in place at that end and file off the part that sticks out?
Do the flats (of the nut) extend past the edge or just the corners? If so you may be able to adjust the length so the flats are to the edge.

[NanoRex]

I would just sand down the nuts. This can be easily achieved by using a drill as a pseudo-lathe. You could also swap them out for the stainless steel nuts, as those have thinner walls.

[Drawcut]

The nuts sold by TCSS are small enough to fit. Others may be larger and not fit which I found out the hard way. If you're going to mod something do it to the nuts - far easier and cheaper to replace.

[Jamonk Arturan]

I would just sand down the nuts. This can be easily achieved by using a drill as a pseudo-lathe. You could also swap them out for the stainless steel nuts, as those have thinner walls.

If I go the sanding route I'm leaning more toward using a hand file or sanding drum on my rotary tool so I only am rounding off the 1 offending corner of the nuts (I'm worried rounding them off entirely will make tightening/loosening them problematic).

Hmm I didn't realize the steel nuts TCSS has are smaller than the brass ones; that is good to know... Perhaps if I end up making a second order before finishing my chassis I'll get some of those too. Unfortunately I've not been able to source any nuts nearly as small as the brass ones I got from TCSS locally so I'd have to wait until I'm placing another order to get a bunch of them.

The nuts sold by TCSS are small enough to fit. Others may be larger and not fit which I found out the hard way. If you're going to mod something do it to the nuts - far easier and cheaper to replace.

The brass nuts I have are the ones from TCSS and they fit very nicely on my chassis disks for the 1.31" OD chassis pieces designed for most MHS parts, but like I said the corner of the nuts stick out by just under 1mm on the smaller 1.14" OD chassis pieces made for the tighter space available inside my Ribbed V-Grooved part. Also, yes I agree the nuts are by far a better choice to mod, and if I did opt to mod the piece I'd be doing it knowing I'd most likely end up having to replace the piece when it gets wrecked. I simply like knowing all my options when planning even if I'll likely not use one.

[Jamonk Arturan]

If I understand the problem the nuts extend past the edge of the chasis.

Could you glue the nuts in place at that end and file off the part that sticks out?
Do the flats (of the nut) extend past the edge or just the corners? If so you may be able to adjust the length so the flats are to the edge.

I can file the nuts down but I do not want to make them overly difficult to remove down the road (So I'm not as excited about using glue) since the end of the chassis where they protrude is also the end that will be much simpler to service when I eventually need to replace my battery.
Also; yes you are correct that it is just the very corners of the nuts (literally just shy of 1mm of material) causing the issue... I had considered shortening the chassis but decided sanding any of the spacers down wouldn't work since the chassis is already butting up against the battery on both sides without excess room... One thing I somehow overlooked was thin 4-40 washers to use as an additional spacer. -I don't have tons of room to extend the chassis but a washer is likely all I'd need and I do have enough room to squeeze one in. That might work better than anything to be honest, assuming I can find ones around here with a small enough diameter -well, and if not I could just sand them down.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely explore this more before making a final decision.



-I am still curious though if anyone that has cut pieces out of the part in question (perhaps for a crystal chamber, etc.) happens to know the thickness between the lowest point in the v-grooves and the inside of the piece just for my knowledge.

[Darth Nurse]

Even if you file part of the brass nut down, a pair of pliers or vice grips will easily remove it if you need to disassemble for some reason or another. Just have extras on hand for reassembly. They are cheap enough to always have a half dozen in reserve.


I would not recommend doing anything to the groves on the extension, that is an expensive mistake (if one is made), in both time and money.