Tools

[ATRSS]

Hi, I'm about to restore a 1961 C15 and I could really do with purchasing some more tools, has anyone got any recommendations as to which are satisfactory for the job please?

[Goldy]

I don't know if you are familiar with British bolt sizes, but the C15 will have British standard cycle BSC British standard fine BSF and British standard Whitworth BSW .The good news is that they all use the same spanners, the odd bit being that the BSW spanners are always denoted 1/16 th less. So you will need open end and ring spanners and sockets from 1/8" whit 3/16"BSF up to 7/16" whit 1/2"BSF This will cover most fastners although there are one or two others that will be slightly bigger. The small screws will be British association BA sizes and they use different spanners. I think there are some good bargains to be had autojumbles  and car boots because millions of these old size spanners where made and still available. Check for wear and that no one has ground out open Enders to make them bigger. Other people will say only buy new, but on the other hand new cheap imported spanners are a waste of money. all the best

[ATRSS]

Once again Goldy thanks for your invaluable help.
Alan

[twolitre]

When you think about it. The smaller hexagons on BSF nuts and bolts makes good sense because the finer BSF threads would more easily strip, or the bolt shear (helix angle) if they had W heads and necessitated longer spanners.
Spanners are almost always longer than they need be anyway to tighten a nut or bolt to the correct torque. I believe the reason the are "too long" is to enable us to UNDO obstinate fasteners.
Jim.

[33d6]

The reduction in Whitworth bolt head sizes was a wartime economy measure. The original Whitworth hex sizes date from the dawn of mechanical engineering as we understand it in the 19th Century and were appropriate for their time . Improved metal quality and urgent wartime economy led to manufacturers safely going down a bolt head size creating the apparent oddity.
Wartime emergency also led to steel standards being described with an EN number, eg, "EN16 is good for girder fork spindles:. EN stands for Emergency Number. Up until the time EN numbers were introduced each steel maker described their steels in different ways and made fractionally different alloys.
Increasing war production across different makers forced them to standardise steel manufacture and have a standard description hence the original Emergency Number system. This system is long gone but we like the convenience so much we still use it.
Here we are generations later and the effects of wartime decisions still linger with us.
Cheers,   

[Rex]

I understood that to be an urban myth, and pre-war machinery (not necessarily bikes) often has the smaller hex sizes fitted.

[Goldy]

33d6 is spot on, I used to work with cranes and if you look at the bolts on pre war structures they look enormous, just because the heads are slightly larger.