The Home Machinist!

I've finished restoring two of my machines and am now moving on to restoring my Shopmaster 3-in-1. This machine was actually apart when the flood hit. Mostly I had carefully laid aside all the parts but after the flood hit and before the machine could be rebuilt I moved from NY to VT. I tried to pick, pack and move everything but in the rush of moving out while my granddaughter and her family moved in I missed a few things. One thing was some tabbed washers that were used to hold some hex nut pairs locked in place on the drive shafts. To disassemble the machine I had to pry the tabs up then remove the nuts. (I'm not sure I can even correctly remember their function, but I believe it was to hold two nuts locked together while screwed on drive shafts. In the Shopmaster parts book they are #68 on Figure 1.) They are about a M14 round with about 6 external tabs. The washers were put between two tightened nuts and then the tabs were bent around the nuts with adjacent tabs bent to the left and then the right. Thus bent it preventing the two nuts from working loose and then moving. I think at one point while searching for something else I saw the parts shown in the McMaster Carr catalog. But I can't figure out a search term to relocate them. Does anyone know what they might be called so I can place an order for them?

Is this what you are looking for? I found this one at Grainger and is called a lock washer. Not very descriptive.

Jim B

Most often called tab washers, or lock tab washers. As I recall, McMaster doesn't carry them.
I bought them & still buy them from bearing suppliers, like Motion Industries, Applied Industrial, etc.

Some auto parts stores carry them also.

McMaster carries tab washers, but they don't look anything like the picture.

Jim B

rrnut-2 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:35 pm McMaster carries tab washers, but they don't look anything like the picture.

Jim B

So I took a quick look. What McMaster calls tab washers, normal people call toothed lock washers, or star washers.
A lot of things like that are regional.

I am not talking about star washers, Mcmaster #2741N13 for example.

Jim B

If you didn't need too many, you could buy fender washers and cut slots in the edges to emulate the locking tabs. But I am sure you will find them somewhere where warmstrong suggested.
--earlgo

I have those type of locking washers in my Bridgeport. Try looking up H&W machine repair I know they have them, but don’t know what size they are.

Some can be rebent and some are useless after rebending. They can look alright but have lost all the integrity at the bent joint. If you lose that, lose all purpose of it being there. I did it often. It is in retrospect. My vehicles were wrecked before it mattered at all.

Sorry for distraction. Tom B knows what he is looking for and the tabs lock tight from one side to the other. Important is that central tab. That is used with wheel axles. So you don't usually need that with machining tools. You have to grind that tab out- waste. The spindle runs high speed so the bearings are set to preload very carefully. One nut isn't going to do it and double nut may unwind too. These are special things which secure both into lasting position.

I read all the replies and tried to open the references. Not much luck, for example the Applied Industries catalog shows lots of entries but give a picture some manufactures logo instead of a picture of the part. I will need 4 but two each in different sizes. At this point my plan is to make them. I'll put the 3-in-1 back together without them and then use it to make the parts. Can someone suggest what material and thickness wold work?

Thanks to all. Tom Barker

Find one here: https://www.skf.com/au/products/rolling ... uts/keyway

Then, you can search their site by part number, or better yet, call ‘em.