UNF Fasteners

I was going to be creative with a title like "Am I screwed?" but figured Neil would take a dim view so I decided against it

Anyway, the story goes like this. I use a good few 3/16" UNF and even smaller UNF and BSF fasteners. Yes, "make your own" lovely and I do, but when you just want one fastener to get a job out the door it isn't much fun.

Anyone have a good supplier of this type of fastener? I have bought a good number of UNC fasteners from modelfixings.com but they don't seem to have the UNF fasteners I need. I am looking for 3/16 x 1" UNF cheese head and 1/8"x1" UNF cheese head. I cut them down, I am not THAT lazy

graham.

Thats an odd way to describe UNF, I would have expected #10 and #5 for 3/16" and 1/8" respectively

As Jason says, they are not called 3/16 UNF but rather #10-32 UNF (nominal OD is actually 0.190" ).

Also, if you are searching for "cheese head" I think you may be unlucky. Try "pan head" instead.

Living in Canada, these things are ubiquitous but I understand you may have problems in the UK. If all else fails, you could try eBay .... I've got hard to find hardware from there a few times.

Edited By OMG on 29/06/2014 14:37:38

Now, if you lived in or near East Anglia, and wanted 5/16 UNF x 1" setscrews, I could help you out.

But since you are using UNF 10 x 32 or UNC 10 x 24, (both 0.190" dia) sadly, cannot help.

Looks like you will need your Zeus Charts for the data to make your own.

Howard

Out of curiosity, do you tap the mating fixings yourself or have you got a big bag of nuts?

Neil

Graham,

Now that Digi-Key has a U.K. operation, you may find something there.

MichaelG.

I have ordered UNF fasteners from www.microfasteners.com in the US several times in the past. The orders have always arrived quickly, they charge sensible amounts for postage, and given the price of their products a typical order usually falls well under the threshold for VAT and import duty to be paid.

I've even ordered metric fasteners from them, as the lengths of the screws I required weren't available from most suppliers in small quantities (well, I didn't need a box of 1000).

Edited By LADmachining on 29/06/2014 15:47:17

Triard Fasteners. Buy all my nuts and bolts from them and I have asked for some weird stuff. Great company to deal with. 01902 602391

You could try these people.

**LINK**

LMAO! No Neil, all Webley stuff is UNF as is much of the BSA. As these companies used traditional craftsmen and designers, some of the fasteners were themselves secured with secondary screws. I will take some pics. They are also Cheese head, pan head are rounded on the outer top edge, I need them to be perfectly square though the odd one is domed.

Will have a ring around at some of the above companies in the morning and thanks for the #10 and #5 explanation, thought they still remain 3/16" dia

graham.

Graham,

Last place I worked at had some American machines, [ we were American owned ] but we found it better to get fasteners from the States where those sizes are common instead of UK suppliers purely on cost.

Our local bolt supplier in the town keeps these, no problem, but I can't afford to buy off them !!

Sadly, it is often the case that I can sometimes strip things for parts as they have more value, by a considerable margin, in bits and sold as second hand spares. There are a couple of well known companies that buy in complete rifles just to break for parts. I really try not to do this but sometimes they are beyond repair. I sometimes put them in the "fix when I get the parts" pile but that pile has grown considerably. Time for a clearout I think.

graham.

There was a guy advertising on home workshop who had a shed load of stuff like that. I'll try to find hsi e mail for you and send as a PM.

Ian

Thank you Ian, very grateful.

graham.

see your post file as I found it

Ian

The domed ones sound more like fillister heads which might be slightly more available than cheese heads (but not much probably).

If you can get fillister heads, the dome is not great and you could potentially turn it off to make a cheese head without much height loss.

" 10-32 fillister " netted a number of hits on the ca and us ebay sites and a few on the uk site. (Beware the infamous "Customs services and international tracking provided" ).

If you find someone in the aircraft engineering and rebuild industry, rebuilding American aircraft. Most the bolts will be hex headed, and now days will have NASA standard heads, size smaller than the old AN standard. Don't know if that sort of thing is done in UK, we do it here, Skyhawks, rebuilt and got rid of, P-3 Orions, and now three C-130 Hurcules. And a large number of small companies rebuilding anything that looks as if it might fly.

Ian S C