Starting a hardware-store-sized bolt and nut collection - anyone done it?

[Dan Friedrichs]

It really bugs me to need a certain nut or bolt and have to go spend $1.25 at Home Depot for a single poor-quality piece of hardware. And my "assorted" jar of nuts and bolts never seems to have what I'm looking for.

I keep thinking about just spending a few hundred dollars and buying a huge assortment of nuts and bolts and such (probably from McMaster) and sorting them into the kinds of bins like they have at better hardware stores. Over a lifetime, I'm sure it will be much cheaper. Anyone done this? Are there any decent ready-made kits of common hardware?

[curtis rosche]

find a hardware store thats going out of buisness and buy their display?

[John Lanciani]

What I do is to buy a full box (100 or 1000, depending) whenever I need something unless it is an obscure item. After 20 years of this I don't have to stop and run to the store very often. I'd be leary of buying a ton of stuff premptively unless you have a really good feel for what you use the most. I also buy box lots of hardware at auctions, it is amazing what you can get for less than $5 that way.

[Rick Potter]

Most of the 'kits' I have seen are small and HF quality. I have a roll away tool box dedicated to screws, washers, nuts and bolts. Over the years I have accumulated quite a few, and am in pretty good shape except for metric sizes. When dad died I also inherited several 3# coffee cans of assorteds, not to mention nails. When my grandaughter married a few months ago, I gave her hubby a starter kit with about 10 cans of various nails and a big can of nuts and bolts as a starter kit. He liked it, she was ambivilant.

Whenever I need screws or bolts, I usually buy a box of the more common ones, rather than a few at a time. I know I will need them later. The Home Base store closed a few years ago, and I bought quite a bit of stuff at 70% off, plus another 10% at the register. It was some of the last stuff in the store, ignored by most people. OSH closed their local store recently, and I passed on most of the hardware, as I already had most of what I need.

TIP: Get a selection of fender washers, you will find them very handy. OSH is a good place to buy smaller nuts, bolts and washers. They sell a lot of them in bags of 50 or 100.

Rick Potter

[Kent A Bathurst]

I've worked my way into a kinda specialized version.

1/4" and #10. I design my jigs and fixtures to use the 1/4".

1/4" in hex and counter-sunk heads. 3/4" thru 4". Washers, lock washers, fender washers. nuts, wing nuts, nylon-insert lock nuts, acorn nuts.

I don't like paying the per-each price at BORG or the neighborhood Ace, but the real deal is I would need two of something and have to make a trip. The "round trip time to go get 'em" is more annoying to me than the actual price.

Having said all that..........I don't know about a pre-packaged assortment, because that never appealed to me. But for selection, I usually go to bolt depot dot com. Line any on-line retailer, the shipping gets out-of-whack on a small-ish order.........so I load up on stuff when I need to replenish. I have a recurring need for various SS items that aren't 1/4" bolts, so I add to that colleciton at the same time.

[Randy Rose]

As others have mentioned, having the proper items on hand is priceless in terms of saving time & frustration.
However if you can`t lay your hands on it quickly :mad:you might as well not have it.
For those without dedicated wooden cabinets, Grainger item 7D416 is great way to keep your small stuff organized. I bought two which gives you 96 separate poly bins which are easily brought over to the point of use. When stacked you give up only 3 sq ft of valuable floor space

[David G Baker]

I am frequently called a hoarder due to my not having to go to the Borg because I already have most things on hand. Nuts, bolts, electrical and plumbing supplies, etc. The list goes on and on. When I was younger I hit a lot of garage sales and purchased a lot of consumables for pennies on the dollar. It is amazing how much money I have saved over the years. My current problem is getting old and not remembering what I have and where I stored it. I am reaching the point in my life where I may have to start liquidating a lot of my inventory and this scares me a little, like a true hoarder.

[Ron Natalie]

Costco (or was it sams) had a real nice kit in a couple of metal boxes in a slide out drawer thing. I figured it was worth what they wanted for it for just the box.

[Stew Hagerty]

I'm disabled and so I have to rely on others to either take me or pick up for me to get anything I don't have on hand. For that reason, I found it essential that I put together a good collection of nots, bolt, and screws. I ordered on-line from Bolt Depot http://www.boltdepot.com/US_assortments.aspx?nv=l 4 large assortments 1 - zink plated flat head wood screws, 1 - zink plated grade 5 bolts, 1 - with nuts, lock washers, & flat washers, and 1- empty case that I filled with assorted items. I also bought from them a 3 of their smaller assortments and 2 empty small cases. In them I got some machine screws & nuts, some pan head wood screws, some stainless screws, and some brass screws. I encorporated the large cases into a miter saw station/storage/shelving unit that I built by fitting them into pull-out shelves with 100lb over extension slides. It was an investment, but I now have on-hand probably 95% or more of the fasteners that I use. I use Bolt Depot to refill most of the items because you can order in pretty much any quantity you want. I use them for specialty items because of that too. However, I use McFeelys to refill the flat head wood screws because of their sales and I like square recess drive. In the same cabinet, I can store my large sanders, routers, Fein, Dremmel, etc. And I have two 30" deep drawers on stopped wooden slides where I stock sanding supplies and small jig & tool sets.

Sorry I if I got a little off topic. Here are some pictures of my "hardware store":

[Eric DeSilva]

I've got six dozen "Dandy Drawers" (http://www.dandydrawers.com/) that I use as my local hardware store. I got frustrated with the random coffee can full of strange screw-like things, threw most of them out, then spent a couple hundred dollars at McFeeley's on a few machine screw and wood screw assortments. Now when I buy screws, I tend to buy in bulk and have a place to put them and get to them. One reason I like the dandy drawers is that you can use one divider the long way to split the drawer in two, two dividers the short way to split the drawer in three, or both sets of dividers to split the drawer in six. You can also have uneven sized fours, etc. Very flexible. I also took the time to print out some labels on my color laser jet--I made up little icons to differentiate machine screws, wood screws, common sizes, and other hardware (shelf pins, pocket screws, cabinet bumpers, RTA hardware...). Even with six dozen, I'm thinking about implementing another rack in the garage with another couple dozen to move things like drywall screws, lag bolts and larger hardware out of my woodshop. The drawers also come out easily, so I can usually bring the drawer to where I'm working, instead of trying to manage a mouthful of screws or grabbing handfuls that then end up disorganized.

[Jim Koepke]

I have done this over the years.

I hardly ever buy hardware without buying a few extras. My dad gave me his cigar box full of wood screws. Used it a lot. My brother was in the buy stuff & sell stuff business and often bought boxes of hardware from assembly contractors and manufacturers when they wanted to liquidate or toss. He mixed it all up and sold it packaged in baggies. I got a bunch from him. One place I worked was tossing a bunch so when I started taking some and making bins for myself others thought it was a good idea so I ended up making selections for 3 or 4 of us.

Another time my brother bought one of those things with about 40 drawers full of screws,nuts and washers and gave it to me since it had a lot of wood screws. I am trying to find a use for some of them since they are 1/4" and 2 or 3" long.

I one time bought a 1000 #6X1-1/4" brass wood screws for making things. After about 3 years I am looking around for another good deal on this size of wood screws.

For me there is no just running into town to grab a bolt or fastener. The closest hardware store is about 15 miles away one way. With gas and time a simple threaded fastener is not going to be cheap if I don't have one on hand.

jtk

[Stew Hagerty]

TIP: Get a selection of fender washers, you will find them very handy.
Rick Potter

+1 on the Fender Washers. I bought a selection of sizes for my set-up (see my post).

[Don Jarvie]

Start going to garage sales and flea markets. There's plently of this stuff really cheap. I go to one particular flea market and I buy any nuts or bolts for sale.

[Brian Elfert]

I need to buy at least some basic nuts and bolts so I don't have to make all those runs to the hardware store. Even though the hardware store is maybe two miles away it takes a good 20 minutes every time I have to make a trip.

I had forgotten I need to do this.

[Ryan Mooney]

find a hardware store thats going out of buisness and buy their display?

+1 on that if you get a chance. I bought a large (for me) supply of wooden plugs, wheels, buttons, etc.. for less than $0.01 each (including those nice yellow plastic cases for essentially free) a few years back at a hardware store that was closing (owner retired) and haven't even worked through all of those yet. Sadly someone else beat me to the bolt and screw collection by a few hours.

Agree with buying boxes instead of 1's and 2's, after a while you have a pretty good selection. I've also tried to standardize bolt (and to a lesser extent) screw sizes as much as possible. I don't have a huge selection, but can often pull up something close enough to work in an emergency. I generally limit my "buy a box" to things that I think I'm going to use more of.. so if I have a project that needs 12" bolts - probably not but #10 screws - probably yes.

[Belinda Barfield]

find a hardware store thats going out of buisness and buy their display?

+2 on this. Also, keep an eye out for other businesses that are closing - maybe a cabinet shop. When a local big chain store closed here we got a lot of shelving for very little. They threw in a couple of shopping carts which come in really handy in our shop. We also bought all of their card display racks for next to nothing and used them to display 12 x 12 stone tiles - worked great! Old library card catalog cabinets would work pretty well, and look good, if you can find them (for your hardware, not our tiles):D.

[Dave Lehnert]

I'm sure that Hillman, the company that has all the bins in the hardware stores, could set you up.

http://www.hillmangroup.com/

[John M Wilson]

Every now & then McFeeley's will offer a miscellaneous bulk pack of assorted screws from odd lots, broken pallets, etc. They usually offer one for machine screws, and one for wood screws. I've picked up a couple -- it's a great deal, and kinda fun in a nerdy way to sort through all the screws, properly categorize them, and file them away for future use. McFeeley's also offers a 25-for-25 (I think) periodically where you can pick up 25 different kinds of their most popular sizes. This is a great way to get a good foundation on a nice screw assortment. I subscribe to their email mailing list just to watch for these type of sales...

[John Coloccia]

Just as an example:

http://www.boltdepot.com/US_assortments.aspx

Generally, though, I find that I use the same sizes over and over again. I keep stocked up on those.

[Stephen Cherry]

I actually have a real hardware store within about 3 minutes from where I live, with people there that actually know what they are selling. They have almost everything, and I don't mind paying a little extra for having everything in stock. You hear about the mom and pop stores closing down, but this place is booming due to service. For example, I wanted to buy a weedwacker last fall, and I went to the big box, and the "worker" couldn't tell me about the warranty, and who provides potential service. I cursed the guy out and left (not proud, I lost it). Went to the mom and pop store, and was set up in 10 minutes (they provide in store service).

[Scott T Smith]

It really bugs me to need a certain nut or bolt and have to go spend $1.25 at Home Depot for a single poor-quality piece of hardware. And my "assorted" jar of nuts and bolts never seems to have what I'm looking for.

I keep thinking about just spending a few hundred dollars and buying a huge assortment of nuts and bolts and such (probably from McMaster) and sorting them into the kinds of bins like they have at better hardware stores. Over a lifetime, I'm sure it will be much cheaper. Anyone done this? Are there any decent ready-made kits of common hardware?

Dan, I have done this. In my instance, a local nut and bolt supply house has a package that includes a bolt bin and assortment. I opted for the 1/4" - 9/16" diameter assorment, with everything larger than 5/16 stocked with grade 8 hardware. It included a bolt bin that can be mounted to a wall, it's about 48" square and 10" deep. As I recall, the inital setup was a few hundred bucks; they sold it basically at cost in order to help lock in the customers for future purchases.

Replacement hardware is purchased either from the same supply house or McMaster; I try to source North American mfg. hardware whenever possible.

Screws and nails are purchased in bulk and stored in some of the large Stanley tote boxes for ease of use and transport.

Usually I will avoid BORG hardware if at all possible, as it is grossly overpriced.

I twice tried to purchase the entire hardware section from a hardware store that was closing, but we could not get together on price.

[Brian Elfert]

I actually have a real hardware store within about 3 minutes from where I live, with people there that actually know what they are selling. They have almost everything, and I don't mind paying a little extra for having everything in stock. You hear about the mom and pop stores closing down, but this place is booming due to service. For example, I wanted to buy a weedwacker last fall, and I went to the big box, and the "worker" couldn't tell me about the warranty, and who provides potential service. I cursed the guy out and left (not proud, I lost it). Went to the mom and pop store, and was set up in 10 minutes (they provide in store service).

Most of the big box stores outsource repairs of power equipment to the local guys. My current Honda mower was bought at Home Depot as the local hardware stores didn't have Honda at the time. My Honda needed a recall repair and it was sent to a local hardware store to get fixed.

The local hardware store now carries Honda mowers and I was planning to get my mower there. I will be going back to Home Depot again for my new Honda mower only because I have $500 of Home Depot gift cards I got free by signing up for a credit card. (My current Honda mower is 11 years old and has started to burn oil like crazy so I am replacing it.)

[Matt Meiser]

Tractor Supply sells them by the pound. I just went down the aisle and grabbed handfuls of each size. It wasn't terribly expensive from what I remember but its probably been 10 years.

[Brian Elfert]

It looks like the metal boxes supplied by Bolt Depot at made by Durham. I found the empty boxes for a lot less at some other retailers. I will probably buy the boxes elsewhere and get my bolts at Bolt Depot. I will lose the nice labels, but I can do my own labels.

I like the local hardware store, but the 20 minutes I lose every time I have to make a trip over there adds up especially when I have made two trips in one day.

[Brian Tymchak]

I've got six dozen "Dandy Drawers" (http://www.dandydrawers.com/) that I use as my local hardware store.

Eric, thanks for the tip! I think I'm going to get 24 of those with dividers to house some larger pieces of hardware like hinges, handles, etc.

[Kent A Bathurst]

............. electrical and plumbing supplies, etc............

Yeah..I forgot about that stuff. :o Boxes with dividers for 1/2" + 3/4" copper plumbing fittings, unions, valves, solder, flux, propane, teflon tape.......I rarely have to do plumbing, but when I do [or on weird occasions when I want to make some fixture-type thing out of copper pipe] I have the inventory to do it. Same with basic elec....way too many wire nuts, plus wire, connectors, receptacles, boxes, breakers........

I'm like the other guys.....I really don't like making a store run for one or two thingamabobs, plus my neighbors have been trained - if they need a few of something, don't go to the store until you first check out my inventory..

[jeff . whitaker]

+1 I do this and it works
Jeff

[Brian Elfert]

I do volunteer construction work at a Scout camp. They have built up their own mini hardware store over the years. It is a minimum one hour trip to a small hardware store and a two to three hour trip to a larger store.

It is nice having 95% of what you need on hand, but the bad part is a single round trip to the shop for a part can be a 30 minute round trip at 15 MPH.

[Thomas Canfield]

I'll second Tractor Supply for bulk bolts, nuts, washers, lag screws, etc sold by the pound. There may be some other store similar also selling by the pound. The price usually worked out to about half of the box store price. Buying boxes of screws also helps build inventory, and some screws are available by pound at lumber yards.