Machine Screw assortments

[durableoreo]

Thinking about a good-enough assortment for a fairly serious hobby shop or small prototype shop. What to include?

So far, I've just purchased what I need. But waiting is really killing my momentum. Also, I don't have everything organized so I sometimes re-order. Also, there's nothing compelling me to compromise so I end up with oddball stuff that's not always usable for other projects.

I can't stock all the things but I do want access to most of the sizes, coarse and fine, metric and imperial. I'm sure I need socket-head cap screws but probably round and flat head, too. Mainly I need black oxide alloy screws but maybe stainless, too.

I've looked into existing assortments. Often the price is good but you end up with a lot of lengths and not very much variety in screw size. That's nice but I can cut a screw to length in the lathe (or with a hack saw) easily so I don't need the convenience. I'm thinking have 2 lengths of each screw: 4 x Diameter and 8 x Diameter. That narrows down on the selection.

For the more experience people on the forum---am I missing anything or including too much? What is your ideal fastener selection, if you had some money burning a hole in your pocket?



To illustrate the idea, I put together an assortment of socket-head cap screws in black oxide, imperial (below). I took some liberty with the lengths. For some lengths, they're just really expensive. Probably just oddball lengths. The selector columns are just to remove certain things from the price total. The price/screw column is colored based on price---more red means more expensive.

It's a fine selection but the total price is a lot. If I could split that with someone... Obviously the 1s and 5s can't be split so the total price of a combined order would be a little higher.

 

[mksj]

I do not use most of the small sizes and above 1/4" I just buy what I need when I need it if outside the usual stock range. I mostly have imperial from 4-40 through 10-32 in common sizes that I use, button head, cap screw, allen screws. Metric I have some odds and ends as well as allen screws in a assorted bin. Depends on what you are doing, but the larger sizes I find it easier to just order through McMasters Carr and it shows up the next day or running down to the local ACE hardware which keeps a wide selection. Every once in awhile you might find someone selling an assortment/lot of sizes and/or bin on eBay, but that is the exception these days. I will also caution on the Chinese screws, both SS and black oxide for the most part are crap. McMasters Carr is much better quality. On occasion for some of the larger size bolts I will cut them down to size as needed, but in general prefer not to go that routs.

There were some screw vendors on eBay that would sell bins with an assortment of screw hardware, might be worth checking into, but usually the quality is lacking.

 

[JimDawson]

Anytime you purchase an assortment of screws, you will purchase everything but what you need.

I build my stock by buying box quantities of screws as I need them, even if I only need one screw for a project, I buy a box. I buy from my local Ace Hardware, sometimes from Home Depot or Lowes, Fastenal, and of course McMaster. For large quantities, I normally buy from Bolt Depot https://www.boltdepot.com/

I pretty much have a hardware store worth of nuts & bolts and I still need to buy them on a regular basis. In fact I just ordered some from McMaster today.

 

[JRaut]

I do the same exercise as you just did every couple years.

And every couple years I half-way convince myself to start a business that sells build-your-own bolt kits —— pick your fasteners, pick your quantities, and get some price breaks based on quantity.

Wanna go in on it with me?

 

[vocatexas]

Working on my old farm equipment, I generally coarse thread in 1/4 to 3/4 inches. I live nearly 20 miles from town, and I've lost count of how many times over the years I've had to stop what I was doing and drive to town for a couple of nuts and bolts. Since I've built my shop, I bought a nut and bolt assortment. It cost a bit over $700, but with the lost time, wear and tear on a vehicle, and now the price of fuel, I don't feel nearly as bad about that as I did the day I wrote the check.

On odd and end things like roll pins, cotter keys, etc., I buy those assortments that Harbor Freight sells. Now, if the roll pin was going in a transmission or something critical, I probably wouldn't use one of those, but for most things I don't see the harm.

 

[matthewsx]

The day you purchase this assortment will be the day before before someone gives you a huge assortment of fasteners. What you're leaving off your list is what grades of hardware you need? it will vary with each project so even if you have the right size you'll either need to compromise on grade or stock something better than your project requires, and it's not always the case that you want a higher grade for any particular application.

When I ran my kart business I did what you're contemplating but I had a lot of specialty fasteners I needed to stock and I could sell enough to justify having more than what I needed. I also had a local supplier who kept quantities on hand so I could restock easily.

At this point in my life I still have the metric bolt kit from the business, I also have many, many containers of miscellaneous fasteners, my dad's Akro-Mills bins with his stuff, and a huge bolt bin given to me by a former customer. I still regularly go to my local hardware store for stuff I don't have.

I totally understand the desire to have things on hand when you need them but unless you're running a repair business I suspect you'll find it a false economy. A decent stock of 1/4 -20 and 8mm will do most things and a run to the hardware store will be a lot cheaper than what you're looking at and even if you do buy all this there's bound to be a time when you need something different or more than you have at hand.

Just get a storage bin and buy a few extra when you're at the hardware store, buy the regulars like 1/4 20 by the box but resist the urge to buy big boxes of small stuff just because it's cheap.

You could also post in the "wanted" section here and I bet you'll find folks who will send you stuff they have extra just for postage....

John

 

[tq60]

We have a distributor in town that supplies the box stores.

8/32 screws are sometimes 3 bucks per hundred.

Post covid some went up.

We will but a hundred or so of the ize we need and near sizes.

We now have a great assortment of 8/32, we use them for many small things.

Avoid the box stores.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[C-Bag]

Decades ago every time something needed to get tossed that had any kind of fastener, screw, clip, ring or bolt I’d take it apart and put them in boxes. I rarely can’t find something out of all my stuff that will work, and have cut my visits to the hardware store to once in a blue moon. My dad had those bolt assortments and I grew to hate them because they never seemed to have what I was looking for and when relying on them I was always having to go out to buy a couple of bolts/screws. In my type of hobby work I do so many different types of projects I’d be hard pressed outside of say different length 1/4”, 5/16”, 3/8” bolts and nuts to guess what I’ll need. That’s where my junk pile comes in handy.

 

[Boswell]

if you are really serious about having a screw assortment on-hand, you also need a variety of types. Socket Head, Round Head, Hex Head, Flat Head and a variety of materials such as Steel, Stainless Steel, Brass. As this is somewhat daunting goal, I do like Jim Dawson does, and buy what I need for each project plus extras for inventory. The theory being that if I needed this once, I am more likely to need it again. Sometimes if I need a particular screw, say a 10-24 x 1" Socket head Cap Screw in Stainless Steel, I might also order a box of 1/2", 3/4" and 1-1/2" to help spread the shipping cost over more parts. Over time, I have built up a fair inventory of screws, but I still seem to have to continually buy more because I need something I don't currently have.

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Anytime you purchase an assortment of screws, you will purchase everything but what you need.

I build my stock by buying box quantities of screws as I need them, even if I only need one screw for a project, I buy a box. I buy from my local Ace Hardware, sometimes from Home Depot or Lowes, Fastenal, and of course McMaster. For large quantities, I normally buy from Bolt Depot https://www.boltdepot.com/

I pretty much have a hardware store worth of nuts & bolts and I still need to buy them on a regular basis. In fact I just ordered some from McMaster today.

Working on my old farm equipment, I generally coarse thread in 1/4 to 3/4 inches. I live nearly 20 miles from town, and I've lost count of how many times over the years I've had to stop what I was doing and drive to town for a couple of nuts and bolts. Since I've built my shop, I bought a nut and bolt assortment. It cost a bit over $700, but with the lost time, wear and tear on a vehicle, and now the price of fuel, I don't feel nearly as bad about that as I did the day I wrote the check.

On odd and end things like roll pins, cotter keys, etc., I buy those assortments that Harbor Freight sells. Now, if the roll pin was going in a transmission or something critical, I probably wouldn't use one of those, but for most things I don't see the harm.

These two about say it all. I do a lot of small work, screws smaller than Nr 4-40 are my mainstay. Mostly 2-56. . . For larger sizes, I do buy "sets" from discount houses. And they do get used, both imperial and metric. When I need good quality, or even moderate, I buy by the box. Usually 100, maybe 50 for larger sizes. In truth, I have found that for the price of 10 individual screws at the hardware store, I can get a box of 100 from a supply house.

Yeah, I have an excess of screws in my shop. But usually can find something that will do what I need if I'm willing to dig for it. I stumbled over a good price for 2-56 X 1 inch screws on eBbay. Not very often I need one. But cut down to 3/8 or 1/2, They show up everywhere I turn.

There isn't any "one size fits all", it's more like one size doesn't fit anything. Building a good selection for what you do takes time. The only "advice" I can give is to buy 10 times what you need for a particular project. Then as you use the last of a particular size, order another 100.

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