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I'm not an engineer, just a novice hobbyist, so I'm not sure my terminology "compression clamp" is correct, but I'm attaching a drawing showing what I'm trying to accomplish.

This plate will be placed over two rods and then "screwed (partly) shut" so that the plate will "squeeze" the rods and not budge under normal operational stresses. The machine screw is inserted into the hole the pink arrow points at and threads into the hole the yellow arrow points at.

My question: It seems to me that the threads will align properly if the gap between those two sections is cut in advance of the threading operation. Is that right? Or should the pink-arrow hole be left smooth-walled and only the yellow-arrow hole be threaded?

clamping plate

Tim
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1 Answers1

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The pink Arrow hole should be left smooth.

If both holes have threads when you turn the screw into the pink hole as soon as it passes the gap and reaches the yellow hole, it will keep the gap space constant.

Turning the screw more will just drive it into both holes while keeping the gap at the same space till the head of the screw jams onto the lower surface of the pink hole.

Any further attempts at tightening the screw will either damage the treads or the screw.

The pink hole should be left smooth and a right size washer used to allow the screw to tighten the bracket safely.

Or alternately you can use a half thread screw similar to this photo.

enter image description here

kamran
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