Lock nuts, wut?

Grab your toolbox, Fringe Fam: we’re talking all about lock nuts.

Often, we get customers in our inbox asking about the nuts we gave them, thinking that they’re the wrong ones or that they’re defective, and we promise that’s not the case.

We definitely meant to give you the hardware we did.

These tricky little pieces of hardware are called lock nuts, and we’re gonna show you how to use them effectively in the assembly of our products.

A lock nut is a type of nut that we use on a bunch of our products - benches and squat racks, to name a few.

We use these because of their namesake - their locking ability - because of the nature of the products they come with. We need, without a doubt, our products that are meant to be stable, to be stable. These little pieces make all the difference in the world in a shaky squat rack or a wobbly bench (things we definitely don’t want when we’re lifting heavy and getting those gainz, and shouldn't have when things are assembled correctly!) because they lock down tighter than a regular nut and bolt, which have the ability to be shaken up and loosened with use.

These little lock nuts, however, lock in tight and stay there.

Most of the issues our customers experience with these pieces during assembly comes with the actual locking part. They’re super easy to screw in with your fingers, just like a regular nut, but only until a certain point. 

You might be thinking, “this is wrong,” or “this must be as far as this nut goes because it won’t go any further,” but you’re still working with your fingers. 

Trust us, we’ve heard this before, and we’ll bet your bottom dollar that your lock nut looks like the one in the photo below.

A very loose & not completely tightened lock nut

You’ve reached a point where you’re gonna need some reinforcement. At which, you’ve reached the “lock” part of the lock nut. This locking part is a little piece of plastic in the threads of the nut that is what truly locks it in when it's tightened down. Do it correctly, and it's not going anywhere.

Here’s where your tools come in.

You’ll need a wrench, at minimum, or a socket to tighten these babies down. Keep screwing them down with the wrench or socket until the nut is completely flush and tight up against whatever product you’re assembling, otherwise it’s not completely locked down. It should look like the photo below when you’re done.

A completely tightened lock nut

Now, once you’ve tightened the lock nut down completely and correctly, they’ll stay put without backing off like a regular nut might on a wiggly bench or shaky squat rack, and you can put in the dirty work without worrying about the structure of your products.