Metallics CNN1024 Nuts 10-24 Cage Nut St-BP (Jar 25)

The CNN1024 cage nut is built for sheet metal from 0.025 to 0.063 inch thick, which covers roughly 22 gauge down through 16 gauge sheet. The spring steel cage grips the panel edge or a center-panel hole in that range. On heavier plate the cage legs won't seat, so a weld nut or tapped hole is the better route there.

It takes a 10-24 machine screw, 24 threads per inch. That is the standard UNC coarse thread for a number 10 screw, so any off the shelf 10-24 machine screw or bolt threads straight in.

The cage body measures 0.510 to 0.531 inch long and 0.510 to 0.530 inch wide, with a head width of 0.475 inch and a height of 0.156 inch. Those are the numbers to work from when you size the square hole in the panel: the cage has to drop through and the retaining legs snap over the edge of the opening.

That is exactly what it is for. The square nut floats inside the cage, so it shifts to meet a screw coming through a misaligned hole instead of forcing you to re-drill. The square pocket in the cage also stops the nut spinning while you torque the screw, which is why it beats a plain nut on blind-side work where you can't get a wrench behind the panel.

Yes, it is a blind-side fastener. Two retaining legs sit on the same side of the nut, 180 degrees apart, and clip the cage onto the panel so it holds itself in place at a panel edge or a center-panel hole. You install from the accessible face and then drive the screw, with no access needed behind.

The CNN1024 is steel with a phosphate coating in black. Phosphate is a mild corrosion and friction coating meant for dry interior service, not weather exposure. For damp or exterior work, Metallics offers some cage nut sizes in stainless steel on request, and that is the version to ask for.

It runs Rockwell C44-51, made from SAE 1050-1065 and SAE 1018 steel. That hardness in the spring cage is what lets the legs hold tension on the panel. Cage nuts of this type are used on farm machinery, rail cars, heating equipment and electronics enclosures.

The CNN1024 is packed 25 to a jar. The order minimum is 50 each, so two jars is the smallest buy. Other sizes and pack quantities are available by request if you need to standardize across a fleet of panels or enclosures.

No. The CNN1024 cage nut is not Buy American compliant and is not ARRA compliant, with country of origin listed as multiple. On a federally funded job with domestic sourcing requirements, you'll need a domestically produced fastener instead.

It is catalogued for the electrical, plumbing, and heating and air conditioning trades. Typical use is mounting rails, covers, trim or accessories into thin-wall sheet metal enclosures, panels and air handling equipment where you need a reusable machine-screw thread in sheet too thin to tap.