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hanger bolt blues

Monday, September 13, 2010



We've been having to mail order stuff because we can't find it locally. One of the items arrived withouth fasteners, and a trip to the hardware store revealed that I needed hanger bolts. These bolts have one end threaded for going into wood, and the other end is threaded for "machine" fasteners. I happen to need a metric 6 thread size on the machine end and the only place I could find it is at Lee Valley Tools out of Canada.  I'm balking at the almost $10USD shipping for an item that is less than $3.

Update:
The company I ordered from sent me what can be described as a threaded rod. Its purpose is to mount the item by having the bolt pass all the way through the wood and out the other side where it is then held tight by a nut.  I didn't want pass-through fastening. So I cut the bolt (the "threaded rod") to the length I needed. A hacksaw, some way to clamp the bolt firmly without damaging the threads, and lots of patience is needed for this step. Then I drilled a hole into the wood where I'm mounting it; the hole is just slightly smaller than the bolt. The metric 6 threading isn't the right threading for wood. The bolt would thread in and not pull out, but it would also allow continuous spinning; i.e. it wouldn't tighten. So to stop the spinning, I used a small dab of Gorilla Glue on the threads going into the wood (dampen the hole using a cotton swab). Once the bolt is in as far as I wanted it to go, I left it alone for the glue to dry. So far it's holding. This was for a decorative item; I don't recommend this method for anything that's supposed to withstand a lot of force!

Another update:
The thing is rotating again. I've concluded that a single point of fastening is going to be prone to rotating. I'll just live with it. Like the guy on TV says: "If it's your house and you put it up the way you wanted, then it's right."

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