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See "Dealing with Awkward Nuts and Bolts" by Peter Baum

21 December 2001

More Tips for Nuts and Bolts

by Lee White

I worked as an aircraft mechanic to pay tuition. There isn't much worse than aircraft when it comes to puting nuts on bolts in unseen and impossible places and retrieving dropped hardware can be more than just extremely painfull, and no you can not just forget about the lost stuff as you never know where it will end up.

Try this: Super glue the washer to the nut and double stick tape the nut to the stick. Turn the bolt to screw it into the nut and it will pull the nut off the stick when the time is right. You can feel when the nut is on the bolt so you know when to start turning the bolt. The stick keeps the nut straigt to aid in starting it correctly and you only have one stick down the hole.