Thin washers

[Ron Torrella]

On Wed, 28 Jun 1995, Mark Story wrote:

> I've never been able to get the washers to work very well - even the
> thinnest are too darn thick. Usually, you only need to take up a third of a
> turn or less. Someone calculated this for a Journal item once (where's that
> Journal CD ROM), and concluded what we already know - you can't make a
> washer thin enough to be useful. You could, I suppose, use a washer and then
> mill the agraff to fit. What I have resorted to is using a piece of thin
> copper wire wrapped in a ring. The copper in soft enough that it will
> flatten to take up the slack that you need.

I guess you've figured out how to get that tiny piece of wire to stay out
at the perimeter of the agraffe seating area.  As I recall, most agraffes
have a recess in the area where they seat against the plate.  Would you
please share your secret with us?  :-) Do you, perhaps circle the copper
wire several times?  How about taking a hammer to such a ring before
dropping it under the agraffe?  Matter of fact, that's how I get the
supply house agraffes to fit (the ones that you mentioned as being too
thick to be of use).  If they're too tall, I smack `em a few times with a
hammer.  They usually flatten out to where they're useful.  Okay, once in
a while their diameter gets a little on the hesitant-to-get-into-the-
seating-area side (too big diameter-wise), but I've found that I can trim
them with a pair of end cutters to make them fit.

Ron Torrella
School of Music         ** STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY **
University of Illinois