Hardware for the shop

I have a lot of bolts and nuts already, but I am missing stuff for machining and tool building. Ie set screws and small taps, machine screws

Which types should i stock? Conical point, Or cup point set screws? Which thread size. I plan on making more tooling for my myford ml10.

In regards to machine screws, what do you tend to stock in your shop?

When I first set up my workshop I stocked it with materials that I thought I would need and still have some which was never used. Best to buy as you need them for a specific project and get a few extras which you then keep as stock. The same goes for a lot of tooling.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 22/08/2020 06:54:45

I do that for normal nuts n bolt plus an identical range in St/steel....from 3mm-20mm

bought a few 3,4,5mm screws of diff lengths with nut's and nylocks also the same and in st/st...plus self tappers..

along with a big range of Allen bolts......

but this stuff gets used and replaced reg ...dread to think of how much money is invested there....

as for ur rather special wants do as above, luckily they dont cost much in those sizes and after a while u'll get a feel for what you need....

then order enough for the job plus 50% that way ur always ahead...

as for the end finish u can always machine a flat from a pionty end....

Find a good local supplier if u can but buying on line is so easy now....

I reg used a fastner supplier in Colchester for specials, who would post to France no probs....

wether I wanted 5 or 50...

Right now i am just trying to keep me going, as I don’t want to invest a lot in hardware which I will not use currently.

Which items do you use the most?

Edited By Jeremy Smith 2 on 22/08/2020 07:13:04

Found an angle grinder decent vice bench and a welder super useful for fabricating bits and bobs

Cut and glue is a lot faster and simpler and gives you more scope for sticking extra useful bits on in places that are difficult or awkward to deal with

saves you fastener time and money, 3 tack welds takes 3 minutes instead of drilling tapping and inserting valuable hex bolts to do an inert static part

Angle grinder chops up lots of metal in minutes into useful sizes for more interesting ME matters

I started with assorted boxes. You may not get many of a particular size, but the empty section soon tells you what you need to buy in larger quantities.

The assortments are not dear, certainly less than a tenner.

The only drawback is that I still have a few sizes of UNC and UNF in nearly empty green metal tins dating back to the 1970's! - but they did not cost me much, even at today's prices

When I need a particular bolt, I buy a kit (usually from Amazon) which has a selection. For example, I've just (literally just!) placed an order for a set of M3/M4/M5 countersunk allen key bolts in various sizes. I only need 7 of them, but buying 10 would cost me (say) a fiver and buying a selection which contains 400 will cost me 15 quid.

One thing I dislike is my inability to buy individual drills at a reasonable price. If I want a (say) 9.7 as a pre-drill before a reamer, then I appear to have to buy 5 or 10 of them. It's cheap enough, but one drill will probably last me the rest of my life (especially if I ever get my drill sharpener in use and running). I resent having to buy 4 spares.

grrr.

Iain

Surely that's going to depend on the work? Most of my stuff is for cars, so I keep a decent selection of M6 and M8 fasteners, fewer M5 and some M10.

M12x1.5 taps and dies are a fairly common need, but that's only true for automotive use.

I've never used a BA thread, and would struggle to find the BA spanners that were my grandfathers.

Iain,

re drills. I have two boxed sets of metric drills from 1.0 to 6.0mm, and one boxed set from 6.0 to 10mm. I also have a Spiralux drill sharpener which from previous discussions on the forum appears to be one of the better ones - except that the absolute minimum size is about 3.0mm My philosophy then is to buy small drills up to 3.0mm in fives, and above that either sharpen or buy singly, usually as a part order. I've recently successfully resharpened (to correct the lips) a 4.4mm drill.

I think Arc is a reasonable place to buy drill bits.

Peter G. Shaw

+1, except it is worth stocking up in advance when you know the items will be used. For example, the type of work I do means I can safely bulk buy metric fasteners between M2 and M4 in different lengths, plus M10 and M12. Other metric sizes and imperial fasteners are bought when needed, but like Paul I always get a few extras. After a few years, there's a good chance I'll have one to hand. Same thing with metal; I tend to use Brass, Aluminium and Steel in a limited range of worth having standard sizes, otherwise it's bought when needed.

Became much clearer after a year of using my machines what I was focussing on. I'd have wasted a lot of money stocking up randomly before I knew where I was going. On the subject of metal, beware of scrap. I discovered the hard way that many alloys don't machine well - poor finish or worse. Better to learn on known metal, and in practice I've found scrap metal to be more trouble than it's worth. Depends on the source; off-cuts from a machine-shop should be fine, breaker-yard metal is pot-luck, even if they'll sell it to you.

Dave

When I have finished my time machine I will nip back to when Whitworth bolts were standard B&Q stock items.

Jeremy,

Could you get on with just having all Metric screws and bolts in your stock, and then buy any special UNF/UNC/BSF/BSW/BA only as and when needed? I would now recommend any younger newcomer to convert any drawings to metric and certainly the fittings.

I do like imperial, but I have BSF/BSW in zinc and stainless for motorcycles, and 26CEI for engine parts. Then an awful lot of BA in brass, steel and in hex, reduced hex and slotted. My Allen Head and Grub Screw box contains BA/BSF/Metric sizes in steel and stainless. And then, of course, I have a whole range of Metric screws and nuts in zinc mainly to cover the sizes above BA. And I still end up turning custom screws and nuts for steam engines which need 32 and 40 TPI.

It's all a bit too much really. Plan all jobs in Metric and stock those only. Buy good sets (Tap and Die Co) of all the other thread forms for the specials, and you will be fully equipped.

Hi Jeremy,

I use metric fasteners as they are much easier to find where I live. For setscrew I mainly use M3 and M4, both conical point and cup, so I have a small stock of these, also some larger. I also have taps and dies for the most used sizes.
Much of the steel I use are off-cuts that come from a machine-shop nearby, and machines OK.

Thor

I buy most of my fasteners and silver steel etc. from GWR fasteners on ebay, quantity needed plus a few to get the best value for the postage as I need them, they usually get here in a couple of days. Another good source of fasteners is Toolstation if you have one nearby.

Metal is the same, I don't have a decent steel stockist anyway near. Always check to get best value for the postage though, it is often just a few pounds more to get best part of twice the quantity for the same cost.

If you are starting out, and do not expect to work on older equipment, build up a stock of Metric fasteners in the sizes that expect to use most.

If you are going to work on cars / motorcycles from the 50s, perhaps some Unified hardware is justified.

Older machinery (machine tools included, if UK manufactured ) will probably require BSW and BSF, with BA for some adjusters and electrical fittings.

If watch or clock making, your needs may different again.

Whatever hardware you choose, you will need spanners (possibly sockets ) Allen keys and screwdrivers to match.

Howard