Am I going to have to buy my bolts from china now?

Once upon a time, I worked two jobs, and the day job was actually in an industrial fastener distributor named Screw Products, Inc. (please insert all jokes here). I started in the warehouse and worked various positions while there. This went on for about 4 years. I worked the counter for a bit also. Ironically, we were directly across the street from Payless Cashways, an early chain lumber/hardware/farm supply.

The crotchety old guy (loved him) that was teaching me always enjoyed sending people "up on the hill" to them when he really didn't want to service them. We had everything, but he was mean. We didn't have any minimum charge for cash sales at the time, so it was whatever we wanted to charge, if anything, to cash customers who wanted a single washer or whatever and no ticket. Often we just made up a figure for a handful of stuff and made no ticket. It messed up our till reconciliation when we did that, but all we did was make up a single ticket for "misc" for whatever the overage was at the ed of the day.

Then the owner out of Dallas decided that he wanted to discourage small sales like that, figuring we didn't have time to waste on those $.50 customers. We hung a sign on the till that said $5.00 min sale. I can't tell you how many people just turned around and went back out the door, or how many seemed to ignore it as though it didn't apply to them. Some of the time, the customers would just keep buying to get to $5.00......"Well then, give me $5.00 worth of them then!" But for our regulars, we ignored it and either gave it to them, or started a ticket that stayed open until someone put it over the minimum, then tilled it. Worked fine, for those working the counter that knew about our system. When we went to lunch or whatever and someone else filled in for us, the regulars got pretty upset when they were told they had to spend $5.

Not long after I left there, they closed the Tyler branch and left only 2 fastener houses to buy from. Some of the hands went to one of the two for jobs, got hired, and I still deal with them....at least those still kicking!
 
We have a screw products local here. They have gone the way of everyone else it seems and only sell packages. Our local Fastenals went to that policy last spring. Empire machine don't have anything any way.

I just got back from Bay view HW with 2ea 1/2" bolts, nuts and 4 washers for 3$ and change. Napa auto don't restock their bins in the last 5 yrs The big home centers are 15 miles away, so I am very happy with the mom and pop. Yeah you caught me I drove.

I have no idea why the fastener companies don't just ad 25% to loose fasteners and keep selling them.

Steve
 
I have a bucket of salvaged bolts, nuts pins etc. Mostly metric but grade5 or better. Most were from a collection of used punch press die sets that were being scrapped out.

Nuts and bolts are over priced if they are better then the soft stuff.

Have you priced out glass fuses for your old car lately? 2 fuses cost more than a gallon of gas!
Pierre
 
This is the logical result of sending the manufacture of such items overseas.

We used to have two screw FACTORIES around here with outlet stores. I now pay four times as much for poor quality as I paid for American made - even adjusted for inflation.

Charles

PS I believe that the day is coming when China will eliminate ALL the middle men. We will have Chinese run and financed stores and distributors. Don't worry though - they'll have Americans cleaning the toilets and working the cash registers.
 
The local Fastenal sells some hardware by the piece and some in full packages only - I can go online and search for a fastener and see what they have in stock locally - usually they have some of each size listed by the pkg and some by the piece, some imported and some US made - they have even ordered in one or two pieces of the by the piece stuff for me and had it the next day (at their own suggestion). Needless to say they have me spoiled and are my first choice for things like socket head fasteners and metric hardware. I also hit the Tractor Supply and Orscheln farm stores when I need common nuts and bolts - hard to beat $1.99 to $3.99 per pound for Grade 2 and Grade 5 nuts, bolts, and washers. Some stores carry some metric hardware in bulk now, too.
 
I can never find exactly what I want at HD, so I just buy online. Zorotools isn't bad for harder to find items, but I recently got some bolts from Albanycountyfasteners http://www.ebay.com/usr/albanycountyfasteners-ny?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754, 25 5/16x 1 1/4in 18tpi for $4 shipped. Although I'm a complete pack rat and strip fasteners from anything I can find I don't always have the exact bolt I want or the right number, so this worked out really well.
 
The thing to watch for with offshore bolts is that they sometimes have standard threads but metric heads :nuts:
 
My bolt supply was just about gone in the most popular sizes, and I was kind of watching for a good price. Menards has bags of bolts for a very good price. The number of bolts per bag varies by size. They were almost as cheap as buying a whole box, and WAY cheaper than buying onesy-twosies at Ace Hardware. In all fairness though, Ace has had most of the uncommon bolts I need in stock. I'm continually impressed when I walk in with something odd and they have one on the shelf. Menards has improved a lot in this area, and they have a pretty good selection now too.

GG
 
We have a really neat Ma & Pa fastener store here in town. But suck on some oxygen before you go in to buy.
I went and picked up (4) m6 SHCS for the Birmingham - $6.00 - takes your breath away.
However they do have decent quality and they have the oddballs.
 
Fastenal is my go to place for all types of fasteners. Most of the time you can buy by the piece. Some of the more common stuff, they'll only sell by the box, but the prices for full boxes are very reasonable. They also have an online store. Amazon.com has a lot of stuff, cheap too, if you can wait.
 
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