Consumables

[Bert_]

I like to keep 5/16 and 3/8 bolts around. They are the most common used. 1/4 and 1/2 are good too but I don't use as much.

Who cares about metric? Use it only when no other option exists. I'll make a trip for those few times.

 

[pbon]

Those of us who use way more metric than SAE care about metric. Even new ‘Merican vehicles seem to have some metric. My “furrin” cars have only metric. Most of the furniture in my commercial building is put together with metric.

 

[Beerhippie]

I like to keep 5/16 and 3/8 bolts around. They are the most common used. 1/4 and 1/2 are good too but I don't use as much.

Who cares about metric? Use it only when no other option exists. I'll make a trip for those few times.

Seems every piece of equipment here in the brewery is a frustrating as hell mix of metric and Imperial. Most are also stainless steel--and no one in the county (a very large western county) stocks fasteners that are both metric and stainless. So I salvage and save whatever I can. What I can't, in common sizes (M6-10), I stock up from McM-C, whose shipping costs often rival the cost of what I'm buying, so I try to organize and make large orders.

 

[finn]

I have 3lb coffee cans for stray fasteners sorted by size. I’ve occasionally grabbed a box or bin of hardware at an auction and got a bunch when my father-in-law passed. It’s rare that I have to go to town for a nut bolt or washer.

That said, I used the last of my 3/8” fender washers awhile back. A little bit depressing to sit and think about how many more I might go through in the time I have left.

A few years ago, I was working on something and needed a fine thread 7/16” bolt. Went to my can and found one and was done with the project faster than I could have washed my hands and grabbed my wallet to drive to town to get one. My wife didn’t understand my excitement.

All my inheritance of coffee cans contained was obsolete household grade fasteners.

I keep thinking I finally purged all that stuff when a month later I find another cigar box filled with random glazier’s points or obsolete plumbing valve seats. I toss them like I did with the stove bolts and flat head wood screws, to say nothing of the assorted nails.

 

[finn]

Those of us who use way more metric than SAE care about metric. Even new ‘Merican vehicles seem to have some metric. My “furrin” cars have only metric. Most of the furniture in my commercial building is put together with metric.

I haven’t seen anything other than metric on any car, foreign or domestic, made in the last ten or twenty years.

 

[Bert_]

I haven’t seen anything other than metric on any car, foreign or domestic, made in the last ten or twenty years.

Are people replacing that much hardware on a car? 95% of the hardware I use has nothing to do with a car.

The hardware I have used on a car sometimes has a nut on the backside. So a metric bolt and nut can just be tossed and sae put back in. That reduces the need for metric hardware down to 1 or 2% of my use.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

All my inheritance of coffee cans contained was obsolete household grade fasteners.

I keep thinking I finally purged all that stuff when a month later I find another cigar box filled with random glazier’s points or obsolete plumbing valve seats. I toss them like I did with the stove bolts and flat head wood screws, to say nothing of the assorted nails.

Sorting it is a chore, but I just set up on the workbench with a can for each size, a can for oddities and a can for trash. Good job for winter while having a few beers.

 

[racecougar]

Are people replacing that much hardware on a car?

Yep. At least I do. That said, working on cars is what my shop is all about.

 

[racecougar]

This is a great feeling, plus I work on too many different things for myself and others to make a trip out anytime I need a bolt or piece of steel/aluminum or other consumable.

I got a few of the Durham 72 compartment storage bins and I've been very happy with the time saved vs the expense of buying and maintaining/filling them.

Ditto. I try to keep a solid inventory on hand in the bolt bins and drawers. Having sorted hardware on hand, ready to go, is the way. Having to run to to a store or order online is a PITA, IMO.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Got a fair amount of my hardware from industrial and estate online auctions. Best deals are when they are held at the place of business and typically the hours to pick up stuff is during the day when most are still at work. Got bins of stainless hardware that way once. Was not listed as stainless but looking at all the equipment they had was not hard to guess that most stuff was going to be SS. Another way is just to outlive some other hoarder when the estate gets sold off. Shelves of hardware still in original packaging. My guess was that fella went nuts at a prior hardware store going out of business sale.

Not like deals every day but they come up occasionally during the year.

 

[pbon]

The hardware I have used on a car sometimes has a nut on the backside. So a metric bolt and nut can just be tossed and sae put back in. That reduces the need for metric hardware down to 1 or 2% of my use.

“Good enough for ‘guvment’ work” as the old saying goes. Although I was a guvment employee, I am not a hack DIYer mechanic.

 

[Bert_]

“Good enough for ‘guvment’ work” as the old saying goes. Although I was a guvment employee, I am not a hack DIYer mechanic.

What is hack about tossing some metric BS and putting standard inch back in?

At least next time I'll be able to grab the right wrench on the first try instead of 4 trips back to the toolbox.

 

[pbon]

What is hack about tossing some metric BS and putting standard inch back in?

At least next time I'll be able to grab the right wrench on the first try instead of 4 trips back to the toolbox.

What is a few millimeters among friends ….

 

[rocksnstumps]

Ditto. I try to keep a solid inventory on hand in the bolt bins and drawers. Having sorted hardware on hand, ready to go, is the way. Having to run to to a store or order online is a PITA, IMO.

Yeah I love to see auction pics like racecougar's man cave. But the big industrial sales can be a better deal if they have so much inventory that gets listed, the smaller lots of odds and ends can get lost or ignored by the big players who are scrappers or flippers in quantity.

 

[racecougar]

Yeah I love to see auction pics like racecougar's man cave. But the big industrial sales can be a better deal if they have so much inventory that gets listed, the smaller lots of odds and ends can get lost or ignored by the big players who are scrappers or flippers in quantity.

I bought much of my equipment, storage, tooling, etc. from local business and industrial auctions.

 

[PFSard]

Ditto. I try to keep a solid inventory on hand in the bolt bins and drawers. Having sorted hardware on hand, ready to go, is the way. Having to run to to a store or order online is a PITA, IMO.

Great stuff. And you still have plenty of empty wall space to expand, as needed!!!!!!!

 

[nicks78camaro]

What is hack about tossing some metric BS and putting standard inch back in?

At least next time I'll be able to grab the right wrench on the first try instead of 4 trips back to the toolbox.

If you're working on a modern car that is factory equipped with all metric fasteners and uses metric tools to work on it, why replace with fasteners that are SAE and take SAE tools?

That makes zero sense.

 

[Bert_]

If you're working on a modern car that is factory equipped with all metric fasteners and uses metric tools to work on it, why replace with fasteners that are SAE and take SAE tools?

That makes zero sense.

Because then I will have normal hardware that everyone recognizes and is easy to find? Plus I can see from 10 feet away it takes a 9/16 wrench. Much better than 4 trips to the tool box for metric.

I've bought things that come with a bag of metric nuts and bolts. That junk goes straight in the scrap bin. I'll pay for inch hardware to replace it.

 

[nicks78camaro]

Because then I will have normal hardware that everyone recognizes and is easy to find? Plus I can see from 10 feet away it takes a 9/16 wrench. Much better than 4 trips to the tool box for metric.

I've bought things that come with a bag of metric nuts and bolts. That junk goes straight in the scrap bin. I'll pay for inch hardware to replace it.

The rest of the car is metric. How is that better?

Might as well go back to the late 70s/early 80s when metric was being introduced and you needed a full set of metric AND standard tools to fix a car. Infuriating. "It's not 1/2", not 9/16" oh it's 13mm...Jesus."

I fully agree it was easier to eyeball what wrench a bolt took when the possibilities were 7/16", 1/2", 9/16".

Household stuff, yeah sure SAE is common and fine.

 

[Beerhippie]

Because then I will have normal hardware that everyone recognizes and is easy to find? Plus I can see from 10 feet away it takes a 9/16 wrench. Much better than 4 trips to the tool box for metric.

I've bought things that come with a bag of metric nuts and bolts. That junk goes straight in the scrap bin. I'll pay for inch hardware to replace it.

You can see a 9/16" fastener from ten feet away?

 

[Bert_]

You can see a 9/16" fastener from ten feet away?

A 3/8 bolt has a 9/16 head. Are you saying you can't ID that with reasonable accuracy from some distance away?

You can work on a lot of stuff with just a 1/2 and a 9/16 wrench. Those have to be the most common size in existence.

 

[Beerhippie]

A 3/8 bolt has a 9/16 head. Are you saying you can't ID that with reasonable accuracy from some distance away?

You can work on a lot of stuff with just a 1/2 and a 9/16 wrench. Those have to be the most common size in existence.

No, I'm saying I can't see anything much smaller than a car from ten feet away!

Just kidding. One of my favorite tools is an old flying-V Crafty 6 pt. long-shaft, DO DBE in 1/2 X 9/16.

But now I live in a world where someone swapped out half the fasteners on a metric rig to Imperial, so I have no idea what kit to grab....

 

[Bert_]

The rest of the car is metric. How is that better?

Might as well go back to the late 70s/early 80s when metric was being introduced and you needed a full set of metric AND standard tools to fix a car. Infuriating. "It's not 1/2, not 9/16" oh it's 13mm...Jesus."

I fully agree it was easier to eyeball what wrench a bolt took when the possibilities were 7/16, 1/2, 9/16".

Household stuff, yeah sure SAE is common and fine.

Industry and farm equipment is mostly inch. That's 90% of what I care about.

If an inch size wrench will turn a metric bolt it's probably what I'll use.

 

[racecougar]

 

[NUTTSGT]

What is a few millimeters among friends ….

Is that what she said ?

 

[theoldwizard1]

Albany County Fasteners has reasonable price for Qty 100 and FREE SHIPPING on orders over $100 !

 

[Craig Balzer]

The red flat file cabinet has my vehicle specific hardware and some general stuff


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Picked up these 4x stacks of trays on CraigsList years ago:

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[Dixie_Flatline]

Nice!