Discuss Old imperial conduit box lid screws in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

i still got BA taps and dies from schooldays.

Yep, totally forgot about them. Mine came in a wooden manufacturers box, pretty sure one of the tap's got lost though!! Can't remember exactly where i acquired mine from, but it'll be a good chance of it being my late electrician uncle that i used to go out working with after school and weekends... Still got the ''Megger'' (somewhere) he gave me!!!
 
Open, ring and box spanners along with taps and dies plus a BA socket set. They’re all somewhere in one of my big tool chests. Not seen the light of day in years, mores the pity.

Never did find a use for the 9-11 spanners. With my eyesight now I’d have a job to even see an 11BA nut!
 
I've got my grandads box of taps and dies i'm slowly sorting through. This includes some whitworth taps dated 1939 and a couple of left-handed whitworths.
 
we do slate the yanks all the time. but at least they have the intelligence to multiply and divide be numbers other than 10, which is all the eurupean trash can manage.
 
That question dates from 9 years ago but while we're on the subject, odd number BA sizes were much less common but did get some use. FWIW there is still a small market e.g. for rail signal equipment that uses 1BA hardware to maintain backward compatibility.
 
We used to have some old 19" racks that used 1BA screws, part of an original fax machine (Muirhead-Jarvis I think) used to send photographic pictures between newspaper offices by telephone until the 70s. Somewhere I still have a 1BA nut runner and a couple of related tools.
 
As an aside, the BA size screws are actually based on metric dimensions, though British and defined/adopted in 1903. 0BA is 6mm diameter but not quite interchangeable with M6 due to the thread profile, while the other sizes (and the nut AF dimensions) are all defined mathematically, unlike the BSW/BSF/UNF/UNC/Metric sizes whire it is more like someboday's choice, but you have more than one...

These days the most useful size spanners to have are 2BA (close to 8mm & 5/16" AF) and 4BA (close to 1/4" AF). Of course if you are doing it properly you have some King Dick spanners:
 
That question dates from 9 years ago but while we're on the subject, odd number BA sizes were much less common but did get some use. FWIW there is still a small market e.g. for rail signal equipment that uses 1BA hardware to maintain backward compatibility.

There are certainly odd number sizes, from 1 through 11, then 15 (no 13BA for some reason), here is a small selection of my box of BA taps

20220623_210658-01.jpeg

I couldn't find a 11BA, 14BA, 15BA OR 16BA tap in this box, but I am sure I have them somewhere.
 
There are certainly odd number sizes, from 1 through 11, then 15 (no 13BA for some reason), here is a small selection of my box of BA taps
These folks seem to be selling 13BA nuts:

But for sure the odd-number sizes are less common. In fact I can't remember seeing any below 10BA in recent decades.
 
These folks seem to be selling 13BA nuts:

But for sure the odd-number sizes are less common. In fact I can't remember seeing any below 10BA in recent decades.
Yup suppose I should have checked, it makes sense as it would be 18swg , I just haven't come across one, and was convinced that 13BA was non-existent.
 

Reply to Old imperial conduit box lid screws in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Similar Threads

Hi guys, I don’t really know where to post this, sorry if it’s in the wrong place. After posting a thread about old lead sheathed cable in my...
Replies
22
Views
2K
I'll start by saying - I have absolutely no intention of doing any wiring or anything electrical myself. You get someone professional to do a...
Replies
8
Views
791
I have an older Crouse Hinds board with a 200A service. Due to recent rehab on the house, I found I have the need to install a sub panel. I...
Replies
1
Views
1K
At long last my wife is getting her new kitchen and the contractor will be running 10 or so new circuits from a new sub panel. The sub panel...
Replies
1
Views
797
Hi I am looking to install some driveway up lights on my new drive way, either side of my drive is grass/gravel (soft dig) I have spoke to a...
Replies
44
Views
4K

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock