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Trussing pins?


lonfire

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hi guys,

I have a load of astralite 4 with only nyloc nuts and bolts. I want something quicker for setting up ie. trussing clips..

 

what do people use and what do you think is best? the sort that are just a U shape with a pin sticking out? or a pin like a bolt but where you put a split pin through to stop the pin falling out..

 

how much are such things?

 

thanks

rgds

chris

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I would contact the manufacturer if I were you. There are replacements available, and you have something knocked up (ooer) but any deviation from the manufacturers spec will leave you in deep do do if it all goes pear shaped and you have not got structural calculations to back up your choice of replacement.
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I use quick realease pins on my trussing, it saves time when rigging, as you dont have to naff about with bolts and washes.

 

I got my pins from litestructures, they were about a £1 each, which is ok. They are as you say a U shaped clip with a pin welded to the inside. I dont know what the regualtions are concerning these, you are best off talking to litestructures direct.

 

you can also get conical adapters that you can use instead of the normal spigots. these slot in then you place a spit pin through the truss and the conical to secure it.

 

the quick release pin comes in both locking and not locking

http://www.litestructures.co.uk/images/products/trussing/pg51_qrp_small.jpg

 

you can see the conical adapters on the end of the truss

http://www.litestructures.co.uk/images/products/p1_1a.jpg

 

vince

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hi,

cheers guys.. I wasn't thinking of making any.. I have contacted litestructures.. but was just unsure if I should be buying locking pins or not..

 

have also enquired about the conical shaped spigots.. looks like they would stop the problem we have where some people have over tightened the bolts which have made some of the spigots oval! very anoying..

 

rgds

chris

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hi,

just incase your interested I got a reply from litestructures:

 

"You could use quick release pins - QRP51 @ £1.50 each instead of the nuts & bolts. The conical shaped spigots you mention are only for the LitePro range."

 

that seems expensive.. hope they do a bulk discount :-( I bet thats plus vat 2!!

 

thanks

chris

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If your truss was designed to take nuts and bolts then you must not use conical pins because the load would only be taken on one side of the pin, unless you intend hammering them in so hard that the "outer" hole expands so much that both ends of the pin make firm contact.

 

£1.50 does not seem much to pay for an item engineered to a particular specification, such as truss pins are. Whilst you can walk into B&Q and buy bolts which fit the holes, these are unlikely to meet the manufacturers specification and are therefore unfit for the purpose.

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hi,

yeah litestructures said that the conical spigots are for a certain range and not suitable for me :-(

 

I'm not planning on buying something from b&q so thats ok.. wouldn't trust my trussing with some bodge job.. just means we have to save up some money.. probably put bolts and spigots in one end of all the lengths and use truss pins on the other ends.. if you see what I mean..

 

I was more thinking of the trilite pins which are around £1 each I believe, when I said expensive... but I see your point..

 

just got to buy smaller amounts or save up I guess.. as we aren't a commercial venture every £ spent has to be justified..

 

thanks

chris

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Ionfire,

 

I know various truss makers use pins and R clips. People like Prolyte & Tomcat are users of this type of pin and clip.

 

How many are you looking to get will depend on the cost. Conical shaped pins would stop the problem so long as noone tried to hammer the living hell out of them.

 

I would recommend a Prolyte dealer in the UK, but being new I don't know quite what the guidelines are on advertising someone else on here.

 

If you PM me I will be happy to forward you details of some people I know.

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carefull with the word 'trilite' this isn't an litestructures product. very similar, but the astralite (and their other versions) have a welded on strengthener at the end of each tube, and a link from each tube end to the others. trilite is similar but has plain ends and no cross links at the end of each piece. spigots are similar.

 

For the sake of 3quid ish per length, quick pins are the way to go.

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Conical shaped pins would stop the problem so long as noone tried to hammer the living hell out of them.

I will say it again. Conical pins must not be used in truss designed to be held to gether with bolts through the chords. A bolt has parallel sides, a conical pin is, well, conical. Bolted truss has identical sized holes, pinned truss using conical pins has a smaller hole on the not hammered side. Therefore a conical pin put in a joint designed to accept a fastener with parallel sides will only touch the truss where the pin is thickest ie on the hammering side. On the not hammering side there will be a gap all around the pin. Therefore the joint on that side is not bearing any load therefore all of the load is carried on the other side of the tube. This leads to asymmetric loading, which is not how the tube is supposed to be loaded.

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My apologies, your right. I misread the post and thought that he wanted to know where to get conical pins from.

 

I should know better as well.

 

Sorry

:(

 

Conical shaped pins would stop the problem so long as noone tried to hammer the living hell out of them.

I will say it again. Conical pins must not be used in truss designed to be held to gether with bolts through the chords. A bolt has parallel sides, a conical pin is, well, conical. Bolted truss has identical sized holes, pinned truss using conical pins has a smaller hole on the not hammered side. Therefore a conical pin put in a joint designed to accept a fastener with parallel sides will only touch the truss where the pin is thickest ie on the hammering side. On the not hammering side there will be a gap all around the pin. Therefore the joint on that side is not bearing any load therefore all of the load is carried on the other side of the tube. This leads to asymmetric loading, which is not how the tube is supposed to be loaded.

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hi,

yeah I know trilite is a trade name for three bar trussing from opti.. and no I'm not planning to buy theres because there cheaper.. and yes as litestructures have pointed out the conical spigots are for a particular range..

 

so its just a case of saving up some money and buying some from litestructures.. what are peoples thoughts on locking vs non locking.. litestructures do both..

 

the problem I've got is that people have over tightened the bolts and bent some of the trussing and the spigots.. which means putting it together can be a real pain.. need to round a few spigots and ends out really.. I've heard from a lot of people that this is a problem they get all the time.. hence why trussing pins are better..

 

rgds

chris

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