Wing nuts, also known as cockerels, have metal protrusions resembling wings that allow for easy manual tightening and loosening. They are commonly used in furniture, cleaning tools, and electrical work. Lug nut wrenches can be used to address seizing issues. They are available in various materials, including plastic for plumbing.
A cockerel is a nut with special metal protrusions resembling wings, hence its name. These lugs allow you to manually tighten the nut. While they may not be hand-tightened as firmly as a conventional hex nut can be tightened with a wrench, they are much easier to tighten and loosen. They are generally used in applications that require frequent bolt tightness adjustments or in situations where ease of use and fitment are more important. They are available in a wide variety of styles and materials.
Home and office furniture manufacturers make frequent use of wing nuts. Underneath most modern desk chairs, a modified wing nut serves to control tension on the chair. Wing nuts are also used to allow for the quick change of interchangeable parts, such as mop heads or other cleaning tools and implements. Microphone or lecterns can also use them to put pressure on the pipes to allow for rapid raising or lowering while preserving structural stability.
Any piece of furniture that requires periodic disassembly and reassembly is likely to use lug nuts. Chair and table legs are often attached with a wing nut. These can be tightened enough to ensure chairs and tables are secure and stable, but can be easily loosened to allow disassembly for moving.
The wire nuts frequently used in electrical work are versions of the wing nut. Instead of using a threaded inside to join with a bolt, these nuts are for clamping onto soft copper wires and holding them in place. Flush nuts, like all lug nuts, are easily tightened by hand, are properly secured when in place, and can be easily loosened when needed.
Wing nuts can seize, most often due to dirt buildup or corrosion. Lug nut wrenches are available to address this issue. They come in a variety of styles, but commonly work by catching on the nut to allow for much greater leverage, which is usually enough to loosen the nut. If this fails, and if space permits, standard adjustable wrenches can also easily be used.
Wing nuts are often manufactured from stainless steel or zinc. Nuts in other metals are also widely available. Plastic wing nuts also exist and are most frequently employed in plumbing to allow plastic pipes to be joined and separated quickly, often to allow access to a drain trap.
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