PROJECT 8

March 2003

MAKING ELEKTRIKIT PIVOT BOLTS AND ELEKTRIKIT CONTACT SCREWS

Pivot Bolts

Contact Screws

 

Recently I needed some Elektrikit Pivot Bolts (Part# 545) and Elektrikit Contact screws (Part# 543).

My dealer only had one of each.

He informed me that he doubts that he will get original stock in again and he can only get repros for me.

 

I decided to make a plan and make my own.

 

PIVOT BOLTS

 

The Elektrikit Pivot bolt is a 1/2" long cheese head bolt. The thread under the head is removed to ID it as a pivot bolt.

The end of the bolt is hollowed out to accept the point of a pivot rod for minimum friction.

 

I started by clamping the bolt in the chuck of my power drill and used the edge of a triangle 

file to remove about 1mm of thread from under the head of the bolt while running the drill.

 

Using my Dremmel tool I ground out the end of the bolt into a concave "V" shape.

 

The finished result.

From the left : an original Elektrikit Pivot bolt, My Repro, a normal 1/2" bolt.

They are fairly easy to make and it is difficult to tell the difference.

 

I made nine bolts in an hour. The original is on the far right.

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