Follow an old shop tradition
Hi All
On this topic of old hardware getting difficult to find, part of my solution is a large heavy wooden crate in the corner of the shop filled with used but good nuts, bolts, washers, and other hardware. In to this crate goes any old/good hardware the comes up extra in the shop. When working on projects and I need hardware I first look through my new hardware stock when that fail its down on my knees to paw through the box. Amazing how often I find what I need.
This box is a family tradition my dad worked in a Naval Research facility starting in 1942, the box was a fixture in that shop in the late 1950s when the box was headed for the scrap bin, it and its contents came home. From then on it was it was common to be handed a sample nut bolt etc and told to "find me one of these" that's how learned about sizes, thread counts etc.
I actually have several of these "hoarding" boxes 3 with all the original bolts taken off my CMPs you know the ones not good enough to reuse but still good. Another has new extra hardware left over that not been sorted back in to new hardware stock shelves.
No I don't have the WWII box of bolts my brother has that in his shop.
For years I have harvested all the nuts bolts screws from any piece of equipment that has reached end of life. One thing that has become obvious over the last 20 years is that the quality of hardware use has gone down sharply.
Cheers Phil
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