how do you build something when all you can buy nowadays is POS fasteners that will fail or never allow you to rest easy about their use? 9$ for any box of screws and they all suck...this is really why we are all doomed

Don't you mean screwed?

Quote: Originally posted by abkayak

how do you build something when all you can buy nowadays is POS fasteners that will fail or never allow you to rest easy about their use? 9$ for any box of screws and they all suck...this is really why we are all doomed

Details?

Are you shopping locally at one of the big box DIY stores?

Would Bolt Depot, McMaster-Carr or Fastenal be a better fit for you?

ATB,
Sam

box store and local availability rage
the common stuff is just plain garbage, and they still whack you for it..
at least grade 8 is still grade 8...or is it?

Quote: Originally posted by abkayak

box store and local availability rage the common stuff is just plain garbage, and they still whack you for it.. at least grade 8 is still grade 8...or is it?

Unfortunately too many local stores only stock "good enough" in their brick and mortars even if you can special order better stuff.

Some of what passes for garden tools in the big orange or big blue stores are only meant to last a season or two and then you are supposed to rebuy.

One of the weeders I use had to be ordered from Whidbey Island from the guy that makes it.

The other I had to buy from a garden specialty company in the next state. Because of a back order issue, we ended up completing the sale in a mall parking lot halfway between me and him.

On the plus side, there's every chance that, with a little care, both tools will outlive me.

Some brick and mortars are killing themselves because they only want to carry low-grade stuff on their shelves. If you force customers to mail-order, your competition pool suddenly gets MUCH larger.

It's a pet peeve near and dear to my heart.

ATB,
Sam

Bought a paint brush made from balsa wood and horse hair. Screws that turned to dust when met with a screwdriver. Its plain theft.

if you have an industrial supply type of place near you, i've had pretty good luck with those businesses by me. they'll have bins full of nuts, bolts, screws, drill bits, etc. and are priced quite reasonably.

I have had very good luck with the "mom & pop" level Ace and True Value for quality and breath of selection. I once even found bolts with a metric head and an SAE thread pitch.

It infuriates me that the Orange Box is extremely reluctant to carry metric. Funny enough I was looking for a LONG tape [over 30 m] for making and measuring lines and Harbor Freight [who are horrible for quality level] had six or seven to choose from, marked in both systems, while the Orange guys had one marked only in SAE.

Living over an hour from my nearest Blue Box and Bulk Co. locations I do a LOT of internet buying.