Nyloc nut on eyebolt: How tight?

Putting in an eyebolt on an HPR rocket. I'm using a nyloc nut so it won't back off. It occurred to me that if I leave it a tiny bit loose, that will let the eyebolt spin freely during recovery, which should reduce twisting in the gear. Any reason not to do this? Or should I snug it down securely?

It would depend on where your putting it.
But I would think where ever you put it ,centering ring, av bay, it would eventually start to brake through it from all the load jerks it will get

I use the same on my builds. I usually tighten it down. Any slack could cause the bolt to snatch at the connection point. Almost like jerking the head of a hammer against something. Snug with reasonably wide washers will reduce the strain that a loose bolt impact would cause.

Cool, thanks all.

Also, you don't want a working joint of hard parts down deep in the airframe. That purpose is best served with a swivel.

Banzai88 said:

Also, you don't want a working joint of hard parts down deep in the airframe. That purpose is best served with a swivel.

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Exactly what I was going to say but you beat me to it.

Well, that answers that pretty unequivocally

Next question: The eyebolt is load-rated (500, I think?) and the threaded part is about 2" long. I need less than half of that. I'm thinking
-If I cut it, I'll need to clean up the threads a little, but it would save me a bit of weight. Don't think it would hurt anything
-If I leave it as is, I'm sending an extra few grams up. I'm leaning toward leaving it alone. Thoughts?

Trim the length, if its longer than the nut you are not gaining any strength, and as you pointed out the extra length is just extra weight.

I do that with bolts and threaded rods all the time. Bolt cutter will mash the threads a little so just remove about another 1 mm with a file until you get to good threads.

Awesome. Thanks, y'all. Now, if I could just find my !#@!~$ hacksaw....

Use large fender washer under the nyloc nut anyway, if loose it can't pull out. Otherwise use a swivel on your recovery equipment.

ActingLikeAKid said:

Awesome. Thanks, y'all. Now, if I could just find my !#@!~$ hacksaw....

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Before I cut I always run a standard nut on past the cut line. After cleaning the threads with a file removing the nut chases the threads for me.
Little something my dad taught me....

Jarhead said:

Before I cut I always run a standard nut on past the cut line. After cleaning the threads with a file removing the nut chases the threads for me.
Little something my dad taught me....

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Thanks for the reminder. One of those "I used to know that...." things

So simple I love it! Ended up using a die to rethread my all rod. Doing this from now on! Thanks!

Thanks, y'all.