Low Clearance Bolt Solution
by cwillson in Workshop > Workbenches
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Low Clearance Bolt Solution
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I bought an awesome Dental Workstation off of Craig's List, but it only had support on one end. I suppose the other end must have been mounted to a wall or maybe rested on a cleat against a wall.
I needed it to be free standing, so the task was to add a leg.
I constructed a simple box leg from 2x6 lumber, but ran into a problem when trying to mount it,
The bottom drawer has minimal clearance, and I wanted to be confident that the particle board would not tear out by adding a fender washer. A normal carriage bolt wouldn't work as even that would have been too high, especially if a fender washer were added. I was also concerned with it spinning and tearing up the particle board
I was afraid using T-Nuts with a bolt from below wouldn't give me the strength I needed either.
My solution was to modify some Elevator Bolts.
Supplies
Elevator bolts long enough to get through all the pieces with room for a washer and nut.
Dremel with a metal cutting disk.
Bench vise.
Elevator Bolts
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I got some 5/16-18x3" Elevator Bolts and simply cut notches across from each other with a Dremel.
Then clamped one side of the cut in a vise and gently bent a tooth on each side so that as you look at the bolt with a notch at 12 o'clock, the bent side is on the right.
This gives a counter clockwise bite as you tighten a nut clockwise from below.
Bolt in Place
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Placed in some snugly drilled holes (so the square underside of the bolt head can grip as well)
Seated them in with a soft hammer, and threw a lock washer and nut on from the bottom.