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Home Depot carriage bolts

2K views 32 replies 24 participants last post by  OldWolf 
#1 ·
Home Depot carriage bolts, those have the rounded heads instead of a hex drive. Nice heavy size 3/8 and 1/2 inch. Ok. Got the picture? The JUNK fasteners from Home Depot come from CHINA. I used pairs to attach a chain to steel plates for shooting. After a few dozen shots the heads seperate from the body!

Yes, the head of the bolt is welded to the threaded shank!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

It like Walmart all over again. First they run all the competition out of business, then or all along they sell the lowest form of counterfeit (make believe) hardware. I could go to Loews. You can bet dollars to donuts it is the same. Maybe one of the hardware chains, again ..... where would Ace buy bolts today? Toasters I expect, nuts and bolts, no - come on, USA cannot even make carriage bolts? Ok, sure,we can make REAL bolts, who would dream of faking a bolt. Chinese rat skum.

(I know fastenall, maybe ? Suppliers? I have to go to supply house for bolts .... and hope for real ones)
 
#2 · (Edited)
I haven't yet experienced any head separation on the Home Depot 1/2" carriage bolts I've used to attach the hangers to my steel plates. The plates have been struck with about 200 rounds of .357mag, twice that of .38 Special and a couple thousand .22LR with some random 9mm and .45ACP thrown in, all of them at 15 to 25 yards. Most of the .357 were 158 grain bullets which have a good amount of energy on target. In all that I've only had a handful of the centerfire rounds strike the bolt heads themselves. Could be I purchased from a rare "good batch" of bolts. Also, I torqued down a lock nut with a heavy washer between it and the plate with the hanger itself sandwiched between a couple more lock nuts further up the shank, maybe that helps relieve some stress on the bolt head itself.

With all that said, I do keep a couple spare bolts, lock nuts and washers in my range kit, JIC.
 
#4 ·
Over 25 years ago I was complaining to owner of the store where I purchased nuts and bolts about foreign made bolts. His response was “That’s where they are all made now so get used to it”. Since about 95% of his business was nut and bolt sales I think he knew what he was talking about.

I can understand being upset about the heads falling off carriage bolts but how about grade 8 bolts that were torqued to specs and a couple of days later you find what they were holding laying on the ground? I had that happen and they were foreign made bolts. The heads had popped off.
 
#5 ·
Every thing in Home Depot is made to a lessor quality, from toilets, to faucets, to appliances. The manufacturers have to cut somewhere to save margins. This has been known for years.
 
#6 ·
I've had some HD carriage bolt heads pop off, while some other ones were fine. Doesn't really seem to matter what the markings on them are. But I have gotten pretty good at telling which ones are going to be junk by looking at the hue of the bolt material. The lighter, hazy hued ones seem to have aluminum in the alloy that make them weak. The darker, clear hued bolts seem to work to the grade stamped on them.

If you want really good bolts, go to the junk yard and pull them off cars (or appliances) made before the 70s. Even somewhat rusty ones are still better than most new bolts sold in hardware stores these days.
 
#8 ·
You guys are all behind the times. The USA no longer manufacturers fasteners. Been that way for twenty+ years now. If we ever go to war with China we won't be able to attach any two parts together unless we weld them. Also, complaining about nuts and bolts not doing their job requires knowing what strength you need to begin with. OSHA requires using lift fasteners with a stamped/cast weight load rating on them to be compliant....I've seen many factories using unmarked products to lift some very heavy loads. It's all an accident waiting to happen.
 
#15 ·
This issue showed up a decade or two ago, in aviation hardware, believe it or not. It was found that the supposed grade 8 aviation fasteners were, at best, grade 5, and many times, lower than that.

I can't help but wonder how many airplanes, both commercial and private, are fighting gravity everyday, with less-than-ideal fasteners holding it together.

Roger
 
#18 ·
Bolts are not made by people. They are made by a big machine that literally stamps the bolt, then squishes it to make the head, after the rod is heated red-hot in an induction heater.
If the US would have spent a small fraction of what they spent to rebuild Germany and Japan on US heavy industry, we would still be world-leaders. Our government doesn't believe in helping USA industry; I don't know why not.

I am lucky to have a bolt and nut store right down the road. I needed some weird bolts for my bike. Never even considered one of the big box stores; too long a history of their junk failing. Went to the bolt store and the man asked if I wanted to pay two cents a piece for Chinese or twenty cents for US made. I went with the US made. I could actually feel the difference.

You can also buy hex steel stock, put it in your lathe and turn your own bolts. There are about a million youtubes showing people turning threads on a lathe. Don't have a lathe? What kind of American are you? Buy a lathe, a mill, a drill press, a welder and teach all of your kids how to use them.
 
#20 ·
ewww..... lathe cut threads........

Cut threads of any sort should be the last resort. Formed threads have much, much better grain structure. Male threads are rolled, female threads are formed by special taps.
Example of such a tap: https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/88136049

If your bolt's heads were hot formed now you know what the problem is. Good bolts have their heads cold formed. That process is called "Cold Forming".

Want good bolts? Grade 8's aren't really it. There are far better out there. G8's have a reasonably high tensile strength, but are relatively brittle.

Want good, US made hardware? Have a look here: https://arp-bolts.com/ and here: https://www.clarendonsf.com/products/bolts-screws

I doubt that you're ever going to find any of these better mfg. practices in a carriage bolt.
 
#26 ·
ewww..... lathe cut threads........

Cut threads of any sort should be the last resort.
Not always.

Company I work for makes ~3,000,000 structural fasteners per month for Boeing, Airbus and a few smaller outfits. We cut all internal threads via tap or CNC lathe. (customer requirement). Formed internal threads in most high volume processes only create ~60% of the thread form, as opposed to >75% for cut.

External thread roll dies can be designed to form most any thread and yes, all things considered, they are indeed stronger than similar cut threads. However, the main reason most external threads are rolled isn't strength, but much lower cost.

BTW, I doubt you'll find a hot-formed carriage bolt at Home Depot. Again, cost.
 
#21 ·
Ive had carriage bolt heads pop off on the first shot. It was actually laughable.
Ever since that discovery ive been using grade 8 or grade 5 hardware including washers. A hex head bolt is fine, but if you prefer the dome head; this is what i do.
Use a drill clamped to solid point or drill press. Put your bolt of choice in the drill chuck (threaded shank of course), and then get a angle grinder with a flap disc attachment (ideal from my experience).
Turn on the drill at a high speed, and remove unwanted material from the bolt head with the sander at an angle that doesn't go past the center point of the bolt head. I leave about 1/8th of the bolt flats so i can get a wrench on it for attachment to steel targets. Haven't had one bust yet.
 
#22 ·
"Cut threads of any sort should be the last resort. Formed threads have much, much better grain structure. Male threads are rolled, female threads are formed by special taps.
Example of such a tap: https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/88136049"

NTSQD, thanks; I did not know that about rolled vs cut threads. They don't teach that stuff in the EE classes. However, I still think it's a good idea to know how to cut threads. It was easy to find a used lathe and fix it up and to teach my kids how to use it. You never know when rolled threads may not be available. Thanks for the feedback.
 
#23 ·
A quality grade 5 carriage bolt should be fine for hanging steel clangers. If you can't find a local source McMaster Carr carries Earnest Machine Products made in Cleveland and the pricing even with shipping is not that unreasonable in quantity. https://www.mcmaster.com/carriage-bolts

And Sophia speaks the truth, we've done this to ourselves. Luckily we can still find better quality stuff if we know where to look.

Frank
 
#27 ·
Sounds like some new Engineer didn't really understand the difference when they created the spec. If they were a super critical nut they'd be a J-Form, formed, not cut thread. It is true that, I'll guess, ~90% of the female threads in the world are cut rather than formed. For the reason mentioned, cost.

When we're talking learning to cut threads on a lathe they are very rarely female threads. Not that female threads can't be cut on a lathe, just that doing so adds another layer of complexity to an already complex, to a beginner, process. A process that I can do, but detest doing.
 
#29 ·
Not an engineer by any means, but isn't their something called "Shear strength" that concerns lateral pressure? I noticed when my round head (plow bolts) break off it is because of a bullet strike on the edge, maybe causing shear pressure, the AR500 plate is not giving so the head shears off? Just thinking
 
#31 ·
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