[modeleng] Re: To BA or not to BA, that is the question.

Tony,

I can't remember how the BA sizes compare to Imperial, but I rarely use a
model bolt larger than #10-32 and most work is with #5 down to #1.  If the
sizes are somewhere about the same, then you will not require very many taps
and dies in BA  #5 is 1/8" with a head diameter of 3/16".  The thing to do
is to find out what size bolt heads are on the original full size
engine,machine/ whatever and not worry about the diameter of the threads as
they rarely show except in the case of studs.  Just determine the scale you
intend to build to,  (1/8th in my case usually) and select the nearest size
that will "look right".

Jesse in West Tennessee where it finally rained a couple of inches in the
last few days.

> With apologies to anyone who thinks that this thread is going on too long,
> this is an interesting post of yours Clif, especially in view of what has
> already been posted about the aesthetics of head sizes! My worry is that I
> will not be able to find these BA nuts and bolts, and I seem to remember a
> similar post a while back on someone else's similar problems. The question
> has to be are there any millimetre to the foot scale models that would
> require metric threads, or do Imperial scales still rule in the world of
> model engineering?
>
> In the meantime I shall be checking both the Chronos and Millhill web
sites
> for the availability of BA fittings, to see if my earlier decision of
being
> totally metric was the right one or not. I have realised that I have a
lathe
> with only Imperial change gears, by the way, and whilst Tel sent me a
chart
> of approximations for cutting metric threads (thanks again Tel), it does
> seem to be going in the  wrong direction for SCALE modelling.
>
> As my existing taps and dies are standard metric sizes, the talk of
> possibily having to go onto Metric Fine raises an interesting question -
> would they be the same price as the set of BA ones and so I would not save
> any money if I had to buy them to augment my standard metric ones? When I
> did my original costings, the sets only covered from 0BA to 10BA, with
11BA
> and 12BA still to be priced out. Are these two additional sizes used much,
> or even at all please? Do I have to include them in my costings to give a
> true comparison with a comprehensive set of Metric Fine ones?

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