Your Opinion on the Nuts and Bolts of it all

I am having a tough time finding good hardware. My intuition say's I should use Grade 8 on everything but, What I see is Grade 8 course thread plus corse threaded Ny lock nuts and the other nuts and washers seem to be very limited. Especially in the finer threads I couldn't find anything, today I was looking for, 1/2x20x2 1/4" length with a short Nylock. I couldnt find anything at Tractor supply, Lowes or Home depot. on some of the stuff they had it did say made in China. I ain' trusting China for nuts and bolts. What do you do? is the a place where I can get different high grade stuff like aircraft stuff.?

 

Aircraft Spruce is one good source, also Wicks Aircraft.

Try google for "aircraft hardware" and I'm sure you can find more.

 

Local mom and pop places work the best for me.

Colvin Auto Parts, great place, I could go in there and just describe what I need, and they get it perfect every time.

 

Grainger, MSC, McMaster-Carr. There are also Fastenal stores in almost every large city. There are a lot of "graded" nuts and bolts comming out of china and they are often not up to quality standards. HD an Lowes are not good places to buy suspension or chassis hardware. Make sure that you get grade 8 nylocs when you but the bolts, most hardware stores only carry grade 3 or 5 nylocks. Good luck. Jaysin

 

Fastenal. I also get good bolts from Sentry Hardware.

 

There's a small independent hardware store near my shop. The prices are cheaper than the big box stores and have a huge selection.
I've had no problems with the quality of their merch as it comes from MSC.

You could also go to a local airport and hit up the repair shops. I've done this a couple of times and it helps when you need a fastener without having to wait for it to ship.

 

FYI, I went to Grainger this morning there stuff is also made in China. I guess I'll just keep looking.

 

I use a local Nut and Bolt Shop..so can help ya there..
are you sure you want to use Grade 8 for "everything"?
grade 8 are stong but ..some places (non frame and suspension) will be fine with grades 5 and down depending on the application.