What are advantages from using stainless steel bolts and nuts?

Overall stainless can be good but one needs to understand uses.

It can gall and that depends on the variety so habit of squirt oil is good.

But they are not the strongest fastener so if doing something where strength not important then stainless. Is good bury high stress use other stuff.

We used stainless screws on a rv to replace the rusted sheet metal screws and they would snap if too much and not much torque used

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Unless environmental conditions require it there is no advantage to SS fasteners and there are some disadvantages in applications where it is not required.

Reasons to use SS fasteners

Corrosion resistance
Low magnetism (although many stainless steel fasteners become magnetic after cold working during manufacture) magnetism does not mean that the product is not considered SS
Appearance

Reasons not to use SS fasteners

Cost, this alone makes the hobbyist sing with joy
Low strength compared to steel
Easily galled as mentioned above
Availability of sizes and configurations

Many consumers lack any knowledge about this sort of thing, the knee jerk reaction is often, costs more so it must be "better".

For years I have been fascinated by the keywords used in advertising products to consumers especially in the aftermarket automotive/motorcycle/bicycle/gun/golf/RC/fishing/hunting and related industries.

I enjoy the adds.

Billet
CNC machined, the average consumer has no idea what this means.
Aircraft Grade aluminum, did not commercial aircraft manufacturers include toilet flush handles or doorknobs? These are all "aircraft grade aluminum" I assume.

Lots of fun here.
 
Primarily I used stainless steel in aluminum parts and in marine environments.

Stainless on stainless tends to gall. Stainless with brass works good. Stainless with aluminum works good.
 
All the fasteners on my telescope projects are stainless and I polish them as well:rolleyes:
More than strong enough for that purpose and they look brilliant against high gloss black and polished aluminium.
I mainly use 3,4,5,6,8 and 10mm
 
Thanks for all the feedback, i've experienced the galling and is very unpleasant, and drilling them is not fun, i need to install webasto heating system in my car before the winter and i'll be using some stainless hardware to avoid corrosion as i'll be mounting it lower down on the frame where there is room and road salt is often present.
 
SS,It is not a magic bullet for all situations, chose materials carefully in critical situations, research facts, forum opinions are just "OPINIONS";) (RTM) data is your friend
 
Make sure the 'stainless' washers you get are same grade. I did same and bolts look great but washers are a unknown 'grade' and have rusted. Something else to get around to sometime :(
 
The acid plant I worked at produced Sulphuric acid and Oleum. Sulphuric 98 and 93 . Oleum is real bad stuff it's also called Fuming Sulphuric Acid. When it hits the atmosphere it fumes sulfur trioxide. When we had a leak we would just run in till it dissipated.
 
stainless is great in corrosive situations. outside, on cars, around water. yes it will gall stainless on stainless but with a good thread lube ( look in auto stores) that can be avoided. bill
 
Unless you specifically need the chemical resistance you get with T316/T616L your galling problem will be substantially less using 304 for one of the components, usually the more expensive one. Of course, strength can be a consideration and depending on application, none of the 300 series may give you the properties you need. So be careful when selecting fasteners. A little anti-sieze is good regardless, but does affect the application of torque specs to a given use.
 
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