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I had a cast iron claw foot tub moved out of a bathroom to remove the carpet floor. The new subfloor and flooring has now been installed. I've moved the tub back into bathroom but in the process of tightening the bolts for the claw feet one of them snapped and I've managed to loose one of the square nuts.

The legs look like the following picture except that the leg retainer highlighted is still attached to the tub. The square nut shown is the one I am missing. Since the square nut is sized to fit the slot it keeps the nut hole centered and allows blind installation of the bolt through the leg to the nut (that is sitting in the retainer). If I have to do this with a standard nut I am in for a world of hurt.

I was thinking that I could glue a washer larger than the slot to a standard nut and angle grind the washer to fit the slot such that the hole is aligned.

The tub currently has two legs installed but the bathroom is small so it is difficult for multiple people to work in the bathroom. The tub is also quite heavy. I was thinking maybe make some cribbing 9" tall (slightly taller than the legs) so the tub is supported while I work on attaching the legs maybe use a car jack to lift it up to install the cribbing. I can as an individual lift the tub up and push something under it.

Anyone do this before?

Any better ideas?

enter image description here

Fresh Codemonger
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    Google is showing square nuts still available. If plumbing not attached yet, would just lift tub on it's side to put leg back on. – crip659 May 06 '21 at 01:17
  • Thank you there might be enough clearance to do that without moving it out of the bathroom. I'll see about replacement square nuts. – Fresh Codemonger May 06 '21 at 01:28
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    You can buy a square nut assortment for about $10 online. Pick one that fits well, then buy a matching bolt. They have them in my local hardware store too, and probably in yours, the kind of store that has an aisle with hundreds of little drawers full of loose hardware. If you have a store like that you can take the foot there and buy a square nut and matching bolt for about $1 altogether. – jay613 May 06 '21 at 02:27
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    For future convenience you can also check the thread on the existing bolt and buy or order a square nut for that bolt. Another option I've used is to grab some 1/8 or 3/16 flat, cut and tap a hole in it and use an angle grinder to cut it into a square nut. From your picture it looks like the two highlighted circles show a piece that is supposed to be welded to the tub and has broken off. Is this correct? – K H May 06 '21 at 03:14
  • @KH Yes that picture isn't mine. The foot retainers on my tub are still welded in place. That picture just shows the detail much better than my pictures. – Fresh Codemonger May 06 '21 at 06:11
  • I did ask at my local lumber yard but they didn't have any square nuts. I do see mixed metric packs on amazon I could probably then source a metric bolt. I thought about making my own nut out of steel and drilling and tapping it but I haven't done that before and seems like slightly more metal work that I'd like to perform for this task. I'll call around and see if other places in town have square nuts. – Fresh Codemonger May 06 '21 at 06:17
  • While a square nut would be preferred, a modern hex nut would have a chance of sliding in there and still holding on the flats, so don't discount that entirely. Also, do you have a method of replacing/repairing whatever it was that snapped? It sounds like that's now part of the process, too, but there doesn't seem to be much focus on that part. – FreeMan May 06 '21 at 13:36
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    @FreeMan it sounds like he snapped the bolt, and then lost the nut. Which he will find right after he gets a new one. Square nuts I have used seem to be a wrench size up from hex nuts. – crip659 May 06 '21 at 16:28
  • Yeah it was just one of the 4 bolts that snapped... and then lost the associated nut so all I need is one bolt and one nut - unless the plumber snaps another one. I did find that lowes carries square nuts.... all the other little hardware places around didn't. online i see a fair amount of metric square nut packs... but then future person is going to find 3 sae and 1 metric so planning to keep it sae. – Fresh Codemonger May 09 '21 at 20:36

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