Stainless fasteners

[theoldwizard1]

So when I was doing some maintenance on my little Toro snow blower last fall I got pissed off at all of the rusted fasteners (even though they were anodized !). I replaced them all stainless. (There is an old fashion fastener store nearby. MUCH cheaper than HD or Lowes and you can buy exactly the quantity needed !)

Someone recently told me that stainless fasteners are not a strong as grade 5 fasteners. Not an issue for this application, but is this true ?

 

[trbomax]

Stainless is grade 3, and they are "stickey" and prone to galding. Ive always used a dab of never sieze when assembling them.

 

[SARG]

FROM THE WORLDWIDE WEB


Stainless steel bolts are stronger than ordinary steel bolts ?
This is clearly not true for the majority of stainless steel bolts. Stainless steel in general has very little carbon, and because of that, most grades of stainless steel cannot be hardened by heat treatment. Stainless steel bolts are, in most cases, just slightly stronger than Grade 2 hardware store junk bolts, and in nearly all cases, significantly less than Grade 5. You do NOT want to use common-grade stainless fasteners in any application that would call for a hardened (Grade 5 or Grade 8, or stronger) fastener. ARP makes a fine line of stainless bolts that have a tensile strength of approximately 170,000 lbs per square inch. This is greater tensile strength than a typical Grade 8 fastener, but keep in mind that tensile strength is not the only measure of bolt quality/strength. Common grades of stainless steel may have reasonable tensile strength, but significantly less yield strength than a "regular" steel bolt--the stainless bolts are more "stretchy". Those ARP-made bolts are the ONLY stainless fasteners I'm aware of that are suitable for general use.

 

[David Ferguson]

One downside to stainless steel hardware is that you can't pick it up with a magnet when you drop it into a deep recess... You can guess when I figured this out...

 

[toxicz28]

Stainless is grade 3, and they are "stickey" and prone to galding. Ive always used a dab of never sieze when assembling them.

+1 on that one.

Funny story (at least I thought it was funny), I was on a job setting canopies for a few train stations. The platform for one of them was curved due to where the station was located. The entire job, I was telling the foreman, super, engineers, etc. "We really should be putting anti-seize on these (1 1/2" x 18" stainless) anchor bolts (with stainless nuts)." Always got brushed off on the prior 4 stations,they told me, "We haven't had a problem with it." OK!
Well, the columns for this curved station(16 of them) were fabricated wrong. This was discovered after they were set. The super wants us to take them down and send them back to the fabricator to be fixed. 95% of those 64 stainless anchor bolts decided to seize up that day. 20' long pipes on the end of the wrench weren't enough to get them loose.
But I got the stink eye when I laughed because they knew better.

 

[AV8OR]

Does some anti-seize contain copper and some doesn't? Now which do you use which on?

 

[rsanter]

Stainless is grade 3, and they are "stickey" and prone to galding. Ive always used a dab of never sieze when assembling them.

very true
the standard stainless fasteners are grade 3 at best. there are some that will be grade 8 but they are very specific fasteners for spacific applications and are much more expensive
stainless on stainless will tend to gaul or sieze together. stainless into steel, aluminum, brass...etc is not so much a problem

bob

 

[diesel research]

I use them on stainless body panels. They break super easy.

 

[trbomax]

Does some anti-seize contain copper and some doesn't? Now which do you use which on?

I use the "food grade" never sieze when heat is not an issue. Its white and not as much of a mess as the copper stuff.

 

[redjalopygarage]

Well guys, I used to work on fire apparatus and just about every bolt I used was stainless steel and grade 8.

 

[rsanter]

Well guys, I used to work on fire apparatus and just about every bolt I used was stainless steel and grade 8.

no doubt
but those are not the hardware store fasteners
it wasnt untill the 90s that they really figured out how to make stainless fasteners a higher grade for reasonable price.
you can get the ARP bolt sets for the engines that will be grade 5 or 8 but you still wont find stainless used internally in any engines (for bolts anyway)

side note: not all stainless is non-magnetic and not all stainless resists rust really well. it all depends on the grade of stainless

bob

 

[REAL HOT SCHITT]

so when i was doing some maintenance on my little toro snow blower last fall i got pissed off at all of the rusted fasteners (even though they were anodized !). I replaced them all stainless. (there is an old fashion fastener store nearby. Much cheaper than hd or lowes and you can buy exactly the quantity needed !)

someone recently told me that stainless fasteners are not a strong as grade 5 fasteners. Not an issue for this application, but is this true ?

go for "stainless grade 316 or 316l", bolts......316 is hi in chrome and classed as marine grade used in salt water.
It is more stable and won t dissolve in salt water. Or other corrosive environs.(DISSOLVE, I MEAN ELECTROLYSIS).

Stainless of this grade is work hardenable, so the more u bend it the more it gets tuffer, same as copper.

 

[willysrule]

we have found at work (power plants) that the best stuff for stainless is Loctite N-7000 metal free anti-seize…

the stuff works great on any materials and has insane temperature rating…-20*F-2400*F

 

[The Maxx]

If you want stainless but want to avoid the nuts seizing on the bolts, use standard steel nuts.

The nut will rust to the bolt, but breaking it free is so much easier than two steel fasteners rusting together. And since the stainless bolt threads won't be rusted you will be turning the nut off on clean threads. Hence using steel bolt w/ stainless nut won't work as well as the male threads will be built up with rust.

Has not failed me yet. Unless your application requires a full stainless assembly, then anti-seize is your friend.

 

[REAL HOT SCHITT]

Hi to the masses.

More Details Visit: www.ststainless.co.nz
My!, have i got sumfink for all...

google up a division of n.z steeland tube for this little gem.....

www.ststainless.co.nz and download (pdf) "the pocket guide to stainless steel".

it will give all u need to know about stainless steels.

enjoy

More Details Visit: www.ststainless.co.nz

 

[sharkytm]

I work on boats a lot, we use SS fasteners, but they are very prone to galling, and need anti-seize or fluid film applied before tightening. They strip pretty easily, but its the only thing we can use.

 

[kartracer55]

So when I was doing some maintenance on my little Toro snow blower last fall I got pissed off at all of the rusted fasteners (even though they were anodized !). I replaced them all stainless. (There is an old fashion fastener store nearby. MUCH cheaper than HD or Lowes and you can buy exactly the quantity needed !)

Someone recently told me that stainless fasteners are not a strong as grade 5 fasteners. Not an issue for this application, but is this true ?

Depends. You can get some pretty strong 300 series stainless bolts, it really depends on the bolt. You can get them with higher tensile strengths than grade 5, but I haven't really seen them above that of grade 8. Most of the stuff in hardware stores are pretty ****** stuff though, so I wouldn't count on it too much.

 

[wiz56]

This might clear some stuff up..........I make aircraft bolts. There are many versions of "stainless," if you can find one check out also the machine data handbook for all the different alloys. This site is a good start for normal stuff.
www.ssina.com/view_a_file/fasteners.pdf -

 

[rasit]

Great link. thanks wiz......

 

[FastKat]

stainless on stainless will tend to gaul or sieze together. stainless into steel, aluminum, brass...etc is not so much a problem

bob

Wow, I did not know this. I always thought the opposite was true. For example, I was taught to always use an anti-seize compound when installing stainless hardware into an aluminum engine block. Heck, I even use it on spark plugs just in case. But I've never heard of a stainless bolt seizing to a stainless nut! Hm.