Plastic Sleeves for Bolts

[jkwilson]

I have a bracket I need to mount to a 4" square tube with 4 3/8"X6" bolts. I'd like to protect the paint on the tube from being destroyed immediately by the bolts. I've seen protective sleeves on bolts before, but I can't seem to Google up a source. Everything I find is either metal or very thick walled nylon. May go with heat shrink tubing if I can't find something else.

Am I calling them the wrong thing, or are they just not available except as bulk material?

 

[AJ.]

Try looking for "top hat washers"

That's what we call them here.

Cheers Andrew

 

[Kevin54]

Do a search for "thinwall nylon tubing" and you'll find what you need.

Another thing you might use is some 3/8" clear plastic tubing that you can pick up at your local hardware store.

 

[matt_i]

If you shrink with 4:1 ratio tubing and get on the lower end of the range, you will have a really thick sleeve, probably 1/16" thic. Some have adhesive inside that assists. That said, I'm not an authority on which material has the best weather resisting properties. McMaster will have all of this plus likely some advice.