I loved my
Shovelhead, and like a lot of motorcycle
owners, regularly worked on my own bike.
Replacing a new exhaust pipe was a cinch—until
the pipe fell off on the first day out
of the box! Surveying the bolt, I realized
there was nothing preventing it from
working loose again—and again.
As much as I liked my bike, I wasn’t
interested in replacing the same bolt
every month for the rest of my life!
I decided to do something about it. With
the companionship of my dog Eightball,
I started with a simple concept: a bolt
that wouldn’t work its way loose,
even under extremes of temperature and
vibration. How hard could that be?
I
worked two days straight on the new idea,
with seven initial designs that didn’t work and
an eighth that did. It turned out
to be a simple but smart solution
that laid a locking wrench on to
a grooved head of a bolt. It locks
down and doesn’t start to work
loose when the machine vibrates or
when metal gets hot and expands,
then contracts and shrinks with cooling.
But as I finished testing my creation,
I noticed that Eightball, lying on
her bench in the workshop, had left
this world. I honored my beloved
canine by naming my new company Stage
8 Locking Fasteners. And, to come
full circle, in order to raise funds
for the patent and the first product
tooling, I sold the Harley.
Since
then, I’ve had plenty of experience
not only supplying my locking header
bolts to frustrated backyard mechanics,
but in making them work for big industrial
purposes. Everyone has something
they want to stay put, and we’re
discovering more uses every day.
We have supplied our locking bolts
to companies that make locomotives,
automobiles and earthmovers. From
race cars to eyeglasses, bolts are
working themselves loose even as
you read this page, but it doesn’t
have to be that way. Read on
to hear more about the multitude
of applications for locking bolts.
You may even think of a few yourself! |
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