Switchboards Charging No. 5C Mk I Canadian
Searching for the correct sized brass flat washers to replace the missing ones on some of the Switchboard terminals has been an interesting exercise and I have had a lot of great help from a number of people here in Canada and the UK.
Finding 0BA brass hardware seemed a simple enough thing to do initially, until it came to the required flat washers. It is something not typically spec’d by a lot of suppliers, beyond the given BA size. What the Switchboard, Charging 5C Parts List stated was a 0BA nickel plated brass flat washer with an inside diameter of 11/16-inch, an outside diameter of 17/64-inch and a thickness of 3/64-inch. What you find today are a lot of Imperial, or Metric sized, flat washers being sold as 0BA, but not dimensionally correct.
Adding to the excitement was the discovery of several old specification charts for BA hardware that indicated there were two sizes of 0BA flat washers, a “Small” and a “Large”. Both had the same thickness and inside diameters, but the large one was the one with the 17/64-inch outer diameter, as used on the Switchboard, Charging 5C and 5C Mk I terminals.
Last weekend, Jacques Fortin contacted me to check out a supplier on Amazon, based out of China. The description of the item was very misleading at first, until I realized it was basically a string of ‘Hit Words” designed to grab the attention of pretty much any search engine combing the web for washers. Having got passed that hurdle, the required flat washers were found with correct dimensions and available in a package of 38 for less than $15.00 Cdn with free shipping. I ordered a package Sunday and they arrived Tuesday.
In the attached photos, these new brass ones seem a bit bigger, but that is just the colour differential at play between the brass new ones and the nickel played originals. I will be starting to plate these new ones later today.
I have also placed an order with BA Bolts in the UK for a 6-inch 0BA threaded brass stud to cut the two missing terminals from, and the necessary amount of standard thickness brass hex nuts and half thick ones.
Just one more brass hardware item to track down for the Switchboard now.
David
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