Nuts and Bolts

[iiibdsiil]

I am always looking for nuts and bolts, washers, etc, the right size. This one is too short, this one is too long. ****! Where'd that one fall to?

What are good companies that will provide me an assortment of nuts and bolts and the like?

Fastenal is one, but I wanna price shop it out, and that's the only company I know of.

Also, what is something like this going to cost me? I am guessing 2500 piece set would be adequate to start with, especially for the little work that I actually. Maybe mail order? I don't want to get into cheap made in China stuff.

I would also need a bin to hold it all, what do you recommend? I know there are the drawers and then the square bins that you put on like a workbench. I really like the drawer idea, but maybe it's not practical.

 

[ZRWON]

I had the local quick oil change guy save me empty 1 qt oil containers. Started with 20 of them from Quaker 5-30 which are green. Drained the left over oil from them (got 3/4 qt) and then rinsed them with 1/2 qt of kerosene starting with the 1st container then dumping it into the nexr until all 20 were rinsed free of oil. Next, set my table saw to cut tops off the containers leaving the botton @ 4 3/4 inch deep. Initially I had them standing on the back of my work bench but later moved to a drawer where all 20 fit perfectly...4 rows front to back with 5 containers per row. The Green containers look great and provide ample storage for nuts, bolts and a zillion other things that previously cluttered or I couldn't find when I needed them. Best of all it's easy to glance at the containers and see what's in each of them. No cost was involved just a few minutes time to clean and saw the tops off the containers and several hours sorting and organizing my treasures of the past 20 years.

 

[avsfan733]

depending on what you need, find yourself a good AN bolt supplier is a good way to start.... Personally I use aircraft Spruce and supply and they can come up with just about anythign you need although im not sure on metric stuff. Orginization wise, I have always preffered snap shut cases, you can find them at homedeopt or something with the moveable dividers and they are stackable. Between 2-3 karts and 2-3 racecars im involved with at anyone time I have a lot of hardware and have found the more organized you are the better. wwwmcmaster.com has all sorts of great little things. About every couple months i go buy a bunch of clearplastic bags from them with preprinted white labels to just quick label special bolts and fasteners. the more organized you are the easier life is. I have tright now 3 cases of an bolts 2 or grade 54/8 bolts in different sizes and lengths and then washers and nuts in sperate cases. Sounds ridiculous but i can always find exactly what i need and if im eyeballign somethign and need a step logner its right next too the first bolt...aka look at ultgar's tools make them hardware and you got a good starting points

 

[OH-MAN]

I just bought some special fastners from these guys.http://www.boltdepot.com/
Have not recived them yet but they seem like a good place

 

[iiibdsiil]

Thanks guys. I like the oil can idea, cheap, and I go through oil pretty fast. (I have one car that takes about 13 quarts alone)

 

[capo72]

As far as storage of nuts and bolts goes, here is what I did. I saved about 35 or 40 baby food jars, when my daughter was in that stage. Then I took a piece of plywood that is the same size as the bottom footprint of my wall hanging cabinets. Then I screwed the lids to the plywood, and mounted it to the bottom of the cabinet that's over my workbench. Then you just fill the jars up with your favorite little stuff, and screw them into the lids. Then they are just hanging right there at eye level, so it's easy to see what you are looking for. I'll try to take a picture some time.

Jeremy

 

[330Scott]

Most of my nuts, bolts, screws, nails, blah, blah, blah are kept in old coffee cans & similar types of containers and like you, I have also been considering a better storage method. I have a Northern Tool about a mile from my house & they have all types of storage setups on display, from basic plastic stackable benchtop units to heavy duty racks and everything in between. Think that I have decided on this and am waiting for a sale price or coupon to come along before I buy it. While you are at Northern's site, check out what else they have to offer in their storage section.

ZRWON, you cracked me up with your oil can storage method. I use the cardboard boxes that Velveeta cheese comes in. Perfect size for storing smaller stuff and they fit perfectly into the chest of drawers that I have mounted onto the lower shelf of one of my workbenches. Yeah, it does take a while to sort out the years of treasure that we tend to accumulate.

 

[Wile1Coyote]

I store mine at the local hardware store. I just pop over when I need something.

No Seriously done the baby food Jar thing, the visibilty is good but it gets old as you have to take the lid off to take it where you want to wrok and then it spills etc etc. I find them to be too small as well. Currently I am split between one of those little cabinets full of drawers and an entire drawer filled with original boxs of various items. that works Ok but can be a pain too. I have some of them in little individual size milk bottles that I have rinsed out and reused. Similar to the baby food jar thing in that you can see what is in the bottle, bigger though as they are usually 2 pints in size and I haven't bothered to hang them or anything. I do use these same bottles for small parts storage when restoring something too, its very simple to throw all of the nuts and bolts from a particular assembly intot abottle, slip in a note as to what it is and store it with the rest of the assembly without haveing to worry about small parts getting lost.
Only problem is they switched milk distributors at the cafe next door and the new bottles don't work as well.

 

[iiibdsiil]

Ya'll have some very good ideas. I see the bolt racks are not that expensive, we have an account with Northern Tool for the job site, so I wonder if we get even more of a discount. I would think so.

I'm gonna swing by fastenal one of these days and see what they can offer me.

 

[Major Ramifications]

At work we used Bowman, and they sent us nice stuff. Then we switched to Grainger, and they gave us some racks and drawers and kept it stocked. We told them what grade of fasteners we wanted.

 

[Double Venom]

Kimball-Midwest, talk to Rick. Tell him DV sent you. Never a mninmun, but he does prefer orders of 10 or more. He can take care of all your bin storage and every connector from mechanical to electrical. Very hi-quality stuff so be prepared for a price difference. May I suggest you use flange nuts and bolts where possible? I have never had one of them self loosen!
DV
Rick Rugles: 614 975 4988 / Kimball/Midwest http://www.kimballmidwest.com/

 

[byrdman]

This may not happen too often, but keep your eyes open for parts houses/Dealerships that go out of business. My Dad scored a nice bolt 3'x3'x1 steel divided bin about half full of grade 5 fasteners at an auction when a dealership went belly up. Nice bin and good quality fasteners. Very nice to have a good selection of fasteners handy.

garage geeks= those who drool over quality bolts.

 

[Weekend_warrior]

Plastic rubbermaid containers work great or even one of the stroage boxes that has the metal boxes that slide into a cabinet. I'm pretty sure klein makes some. I just use the clear plastic ones with the adjustable compartments.

I use the flanged nuts for my dirtbike. I just bought an assortment of the most common size and thread in a couple different lengths that fit my bike. The heads are all even sizes which is a good so I don't have to carry odd size sockets or wrenchs in my tool pack. I have been thinking of keeping an assortment on hand for my truck, but not realy sure what to buy. I just usualy go to a specailty bolt shop that is local here called "The bolt ben" Its a pretty cool shop, plus they carry a good assortment of heli coil kits and I think they also have Time inserts.

 

[Rollman]

Both of those sites are pretty kool . K&W looks like it carries anything and everything . Bolt Depot looks pretty good to , I like the assortment packages you can buy and the prices aren't bad. Good web sites

 

[Matt Harwood]

Fasco Fastener specializes in stainless hardware. I've bought a lot of stuff from them in the past. My wife was shocked when I told her how much I spent on nuts and bolts "just to have them."

For storage, I use those little compartmented drawer organizers that you can hang on the wall. Some of the larger compartments can hold more bolts than I'll ever use.

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

http://www.coastfab.com/

 

[Vincent Vega]

We have a place around here called Farm and Fleet. They sell nuts/bolts/washers by the pound. Usually around 1.89-2.19 depending on grade. I usually by a couple pounds of assorted sizes when I'm in there for other things. For storage I use Akro Mills stackable bins of assorted sizes and a couple multi drawer units.

 

[jim m]

I to had the problem of trying to figure out how to store all the nut n bolts. just went to wallmart bought the stack-on 20 compartment lided storage trays they sell in there hardware department. you can set them up anyway that works for you and even hot glue the boxends right to the clear lid so you can tell whats where. add a lable to the front say for self tapping screws or machine bolts what ever they have handles so you can take each one right to the work
I allso built a simple plywood rack with klets for them to slide in and out on to store them just pull out the one you need and your in buisness
hope this help cheap n easy

Jim

 

[Kevin54]

If you work for a factory, check with who they get all of their nuts & bolts supply from. Usually any employee of the company can order direct from their company supplier and get a 10% discount plus free shipping to your door. One of the perks. It is that way where I work and was with 3 different suppliers.

Kevin

 

[bmwpower]

Don't forget Ultimate Garage:

http://www.ultimategarage.com/hmhdwre.html

Not sure if these are for his clients only...

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

Dont you have to fill out a cerdit app and be screened as "socially acceptable" to be granted the privilege of purchasing from ULTGAR?