Penny washers

[Ol'fogasaurus]

This is meant as a "for what it is worth" discussion:

There was a recent post where the topic of "Penny Washers" came up, I looked the topic up as I haven't heard it used for a very long time.

As I understood it (a very long time ago) you punched a hole in a penny big enough for the fastener to go through and you would have a cheap washer and it/is was maybe corrosive proof (and maybe illegal to do on top of that). There were also odd, shaped washers also.

If you look at Penny washers online, they are usually large diameter washers with a large hole in the middle.

Washers are designed to work with certain limitations meaning sizes, diameters and materials. The hole in the middle is usually designed to be a smidgeon larger than the radius under the head of the bolt. The outer diameter is usually a bit larger than the diameter of the head of the bolt (the flanges that the tools use usually does not apply to the washer's diameter as they are beveled up, so they don't interfere (dig into the material(s) being clamped together) when the torquing of the nut of bolt.

The "grade" of the nut and fastener does come into play here also as the material, radius and some other things of the bolt and threaded receptacle plus the materials it is being used to clamped together come into play.

The large diameter hole can be larger than the designed washer needs to complete it job correctly. Again, the Innercircle is designed to meet the fasterners under head requirements as well as the/any limitations of the clamped together materials have.

For light duty or non-tight clearance locations, the penny washer might work but they are not usually designed for heavy duty work like a standard duty washer should be used (it should match the bolt's design components.

The washer stack is usually limited to 3 washers that are designed for the bolt's diameter and under head radius. I do not think that penny washers would work in heavier duty setups where multiple washers are used as the engineering rules (as I remember) are very careful with washer design as well as bolt design.

One might be impressed to the different styles of washers you might find in MS (mil specs and there are several of them but are not supposed to be civilian accessible), IS0 (International Organization for Standardization [metric?]) or SAE (inches).

Again, this is just for info.

Lee

[Bruce.m]

The other name I’ve seen & use for penny washers is a repair washer. I’d assumed the name was based on the size being similar to an old English penny which was much larger than the modern version.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The other name I’ve seen & use for penny washers is a repair washer. I’d assumed the name was based on the size being similar to an old English penny which was much larger than the modern version.

It wouldn't Suprise me. How many would it take to make an Englishman pound in frustration (the pun is intended!)

They have their use, but they are not always suitable for more than soft loading or get home with a temp fix to be quickly done right.

When I was a beginner mechanic back in the mid-60's, I would occasionally see them used. I saw them more on cheaply built hot rods which you could also purchase cheaply roll:

Again, this post was for information, but I have seen some crap stuff still being done... maybe at about the same level and sometimes (I haven't seen everything) maybe even worse.

Lee