Wanted Campagnolo BB spanner pin

[jim haseltine]

Over the years I have contemplated turning down stainless bolts to fit on my lathe but as I've got the VAR pin spanner I've never taken the idea any further. The threads in the spanner appear to be M5x0,8 but seem to taper, it might just be because the original pins fitted flush with the back of the spanner so didn't take down the hard chrome on the last bit of the thread - OTOH, it could be Campagnolo being sneaky.

 

[Betsy]

Yep, that would work, something like this


If you have a pillar drill you could centralise the tapered hole under the chuck with an appropriate sized drill, clamp the wrench down in position and drill it out to the dia of your stainless bolt, turn a little pin on the end with a flange then bolt from the back.

 

[Balaphuel]

You've all inspired me to find a solution to this. I found these on ebay which seem to have done the trick nicely. If you search on Ebay for "DOG POINT A2 STAINLESS STEEL METRIC SOCKET ALLEN GRUB SCREWS", Width - M5, Length - 16mm. I got a 10 pack for £2.29.
According to my calipers the remaining original peg on my Campag spanner has a dia. of approx 2.7mm & the ebay grub screws measure 3.5mm dia. at their threadless end. To reduce the dia. I simply locked a couple of m5 nuts onto the grub screw, locked it in a vice & evenly went around it with a file. Job done in a few mins.
I don't have any BB's needing fitted, however I tested it in this Royce BB and it was a perfect fit!

 

[Betsy]

Well done!.. made do and mend

To reduce the dia. I simply locked a couple of m5 nuts onto the grub screw, locked it in a vice & evenly went around it with a file. Job done in a few mins.
I don't have any BB's needing fitted, however I tested it in this Royce BB and it was a perfect fit!

You can improvise a 'poor-mans lathe' by putting the nut in the chuck of a cordless drill/driver, carefully nip the drill up in your vice and zip-tie the trigger down ... then you can file while it spins

 

[jim haseltine]

I've used a pillar drill for that. You have to take care not to put pressure on the piece while filing because drill bearings aren't intended to take sideway force.