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the lack of new hardware has held me up for quite awhile to actually finish alot of the builds that i've started (or atleast install the parts that i DO have for them). digging through mounds of used screws/nuts/washers to find ones that would clean up nicely, or find new stuff mixed in, was starting to get irritating. so, it was time to finally place a big hardware order.
now, i just have to find the time to use them.

Nice, where'd you order from?

HI!... Nice! I'm waiting for my $50 order of hardware from Tony's Screws currently.

RCveteran wrote:Nice, where'd you order from?

fastener express. i don't know if all of that would've been cheaper at mcmaster-carr (kinda doubt it), but i find their site kind of a pain in the butt to navigate.

mcmaster would have likely been cheaper, but probably not enough to worry about.

one thing I do though, is I HATE black oxide hardware, so everything I order through mcmaster is stainless. I'ts not as strong, but never gets all rusty and nasty. Since I never really run much anyway, it's a who-cares on my part. I suppose if you oil them up really well, you'd never have the problem.

for re-doing factory spec 'concours' though, the stainless isn't correct.

the hardest thing to find is aluminum 8-32 screws, so I just use the associated ones through tower, etc.

Speaking of hardware, I just received a special-order of a hundred M2 x 8 stainless steel cap head screws from RCScrewz to upgrade the plain black steel cap-head screws included with a set of bead-lock wheels I purchased. They just look way better than the black screws.

Well I recently ordered a package of 3mm x 25mm socket head screws from RCScrewz and they have a shoulder. What good is that? It severely limits what they can be used for. Luckily they worked for the off the wall application I needed them for. I also ordered a package of the same screws but in a button head and they did not have a shoulder.

Now don't get me wrong RCScrewz is great, and I do a fair amount of business with them. They just really need to specify when the threads on some of their longer screws don't go all the way to the head.

yes, you have to be careful with long length screws, most of the time you will get a screw with a shoulder unless you specify fully threaded. It's actually an industry standard because it has to do with the strength of the screw. After a calculated length of thread, any more reduces the capacity of the fastener. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's something like 5x the diameter.

Thats fine and completely understandable but I just think RCScrewz should specify it as its not the customers responsibility to know that industry standard. Especially when you buy the same screws from them and some come with shoulders and some do not. Whens the last time someone here went to order screws and thought to themselves "Hmmm I better ask if these screws are completely threaded." Its like ok heres your order of all identical cap screws but surprise some have a shoulder and some do not. Sorry we didn't mention it before hand.

i just noticed F.E. is a few miles down the road from me...I hope they have a store front

well, technically, I do try and verify what the screws look like, but I have an engineering background, so it's second nature.

it drives me nuts when I can't find technical data on parts. I have resorted to counting gear teeth and extrapolating dimensions by measuring and scaling pictures from ebay....ugh.

that's one reason I really like towerhobbies, usually, they will put some technical info in the notes, granted, it's not all accurate, but....it's better than nothing...

jwscab wrote:it drives me nuts when I can't find technical data on parts. I have resorted to counting gear teeth and extrapolating dimensions by measuring and scaling pictures from ebay....ugh.

that's one reason I really like towerhobbies, usually, they will put some technical info in the notes, granted, it's not all accurate, but....it's better than nothing...

I TOTALLY agree with you, jwscab! Not much irks me more than when some lazy-ass eBay seller doesn't put any specs in their item description, which means you end up having to find more info from the manufacturer's website...or Tower, which is very good about listing specs.

This has become a major annoyance for me with the upgrading & modding I was doing with my Turbo Optima, and much moreso with Project CYANide. I've had to do the scale-down measuring in image editor program, too, or trying to download manual pages in full-size hoping to find full-scale pictures within.

One of the worst offenders is philshobbyshop; the guy includes nothing in his descriptions other than the part number, and doesn't answer any questions.