Home Depot bolts are total garbage quality compared to anything McMaster gives you. They are good for some stuff, but I would not use them for projects where you want the hardware to last. Also you don't have the choice of the type of steel etc.. which really matters for some projects. IDK if they even tell you what type of stainless their stainless are? 304?
Where are you finding pot metal bolts? Your best option should be anything from Ace/Home Depot/Lowes. The matte finish ones are zinc galvanized, that’s just the protective coating. They are made of carbon steel and are graded according to standards set by organizations like SAE.
Hardware stores will have grade 2 bolts for the most part (or the metric equivalents). These will be made with weaker steel and will be cut instead of cold rolled. If you’re doing something that needs more strength than that, you can get grade 5 or 8 bolts. These will be cold rolled from higher strength steel and may be tested with a penetrant dye to check for any fractures. You can get those at a hardware store or at many online stores. If you need more strength than that, you’re probably in an aerospace application and I recommend that you don’t ask for advice on HN.
If you’re buying a shit-load of bolts (like, more than a thousand of one kind of bolt), then you can go to a wholesale website.
Haven't got pot metal bolts, just thinking of some machine screw assortments I've bought on Amazon. They've worked fine for 3d printing projects, but makes me wary of fasteners from unknown sources if strength could matter.
Hardware store has been my go to, is that the reference people are using for saying McMaster bolts are 4x overpriced?
Yeah, it is. I wouldn’t worry about low grade bolts from unknown sources, really, unless it’s a safety critical application. The cost benefit to the manufacturer for cheaping out is almost nothing. To make it look like a bolt you’re going to have to make it correctly. You could use a cheaper metal but it doesn’t get much cheaper than low carbon steel which is already what they’re supposed to be made of.
Yeah, if you can buy what you want at big box hardware store, then do, prices won't get much lower than that, and you'll get something that's certified to a standard. McMaster is useful if your time is worth too much to waste it on trips to Home Depot, or if you want something less standard.
I don't usually find the local hardware stores to be cheaper than McMaster.
I see Home Depot has 1/4-20 18-8 stainless steel bolts for $7 a pack of 10. McMaster has them for $8 a pack of 50.
The exception is when I need just one or two of something and it is available in the single-unit bins at the local hardware store. With McMaster the minimum quantity is usually a box of N, but the price per unit usually quite a bit cheaper.
And of course the selection is vastly better. For the above example, I'd usually really buy 316 stainless, which Home Depot doesn't even have.
Self-assembled furniture seems to have terrible bolts more often than not. Instrument stands and drum kits also come with softest imaginable bolts except the most expensive gear. I'm sure there are other products like this.
Are you stripping hex bolts? If so, the solution may be to buy some good hex bits (and a bit extender) which make it much easier to avoid slipping and stripping the bolt compared to a plain hex key.
Even worse, the hex sockets are often just a bit too large so that even proper tools won't fit. Ikea also has some special screws that are not really Phillips, Pozidrive or any other standard so there just isn't a driver that would fit.
I recently moved and needed some new furniture. I purchased a bed previously with storage boxes underneath in the past and I was dreading the same experience again.
I did buy a different model[0] this time around and it's been over 5 years since my last purchase, but the quality on this bed is much better. All of the holes were pre drilled/tapped correctly and they've vastly improved the way the mattress slats are secured.
For the drawers underneath, the joining method was much simpler than before and while I still wouldn't look forward to taking it apart if/when I move, I can at least see a viable path for disassembly and re-assembly at my future house. The previous drawers were junk and got stuck or broke within a month.
I'm currently assembling a TV stand[1] and so far it's been great except for the top shelf. It's a veneered wood product and I guess they want you to pick the "best" side and you have to tap the holes yourself. I would have preferred pre-drilled holes since a TV is going to cover 90% of the top anyway, but it's not a huge problem. It's also possible they use the same part number in some other product that doesn't require holes so this way is better for their logistics.
While the bolts at home depot are made of some form of iron they often are not graded at all. There is a reason: they wouldn't pass any quality tests. The graded ones are probably okay, I'm not sure as I wouldn't attempt to use anything they have in something important as I have no way of knowing something didn't get put in the wrong bin by mistake.
Home Depot's private label brand (Everbilt) are absolutely graded. An SAE grade 1 or 2 is unmarked but if you look at their metric bolts you'll see the 8.8 grade mark.
I don't know where I got them, but I have used graded bolts in the past that broke under much less torque than they should. I am now more careful about getting bolts from a source I know I can trust.
Call a local machine shop, mechanic or welder and ask. Almost every town and city has a store that specializes in hardware for tradies that has better pricing and selection than HD or Ace or homeowner stores.
My go-to for stuff like this used to be SmallParts.com back when McMaster-Carr wouldn't sell to individuals (they do now). Amazon bought Small Parts and renamed it Amazon Supply. I haven't bought anything from them recently, but it's worth a shot.
Small Parts was amazing they specialized in, you got it, small components such as fasteners (you could get titanium screws if you needed them), small mechanicals such as tubing, solenoid valves, bearings, shafting, metal, etc. They were a prototyper's dream.
I have ordered a large amount of bolts from them, and they're quite good. They don't have McMaster's selection of weirdo stuff (ceramic bolts, titanium bolts, etc), but for your standard Grade 5 / Grade 8 etc, they're solid.
