Bolt strength

[BobDavis88@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 09/20/2001 3:58:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
JD@Pianomaker.co.uk writes:

> Do a web search for Unbrako and see if they have downloadable data sheets.  
> If not, you should be able to get the very detailed specs from any 
engineers' 
> supply shop. 

Thanks for the suggestion. Unbrako's site didn't help, but I did find a short 
informative article at a tractor site! It's called 
 <A HREF="http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/articles/artint222.htm">
Yesterday's Tractors - Fasteners: The Nuts and Bolts of Nuts and Bolts</A> 
 and for those who want a quick read-up on fasteners, it's at
http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/articles/artint222.htm

This gives the tensile strength in pounds per square inch for the various 
grades of bolt. We can find the area with the standard formula for area, pi * 
the square of the radius. For a a 3/8" bolt, the radius is 0.1875, so this 
would be 3.14159 * (.1875*.1875) = .1104" 

I'm assuming it would be a good idea to reduce this by 10% or so to account 
for the reduction in diameter at the threads, then multiply it by the tensile 
strength for the chosen grade of bolt (even at the lowest grade we're talking 
6400 pound load capacity per bolt).

Thanks again,
Bob