strange screws (flat pack things)

[Matthew Ames]

hi all,

I am after some help. The gf was moving house (with her parents), and her step dad gave her the screws to her bed, which she has now lost (misplaced in the depths of her car). The result of this being that she can't reassemble her bed. I only have a rough idea of what the screws look like, but here goes:

about 50 mm long diameter of about 5 mm countersunk allen screw heads probably about 2/3 thread, 1/3 non-thread (not sure of the proper description for that)

I am sure that I could force in some wood/self tapping screws, but that will ruin the woodwork should the original screws reappear. Therefore I was ideally hoping to buy some replacement ones, but a quick look in B&Q at the weekend and a thumb threw the screwfix catalogue has drawn a blank.

Any ideas of a supplier? Bed only needs 8 screws to save her from sleeping on the mattress on the floor.

Cheers, Matt

[stefek.zaba]

Is the allen-socket head particularly critical to the functioning or aesthetics? Likewise the part-threading? They're most likely to be M5 metric; even B&Q will have 50mm M5 countersunk in steel with a Pozi or a slot head (at very worst, M5 studding - threaded rod - onto the end of which you can jam two M5 nuts screwed hard up against each other, though you loose countersinking that way); and if you try an M5 you'll at least know if that's the thread.

If you feel the urge to track down absolutely identickle replacements, your Yellow Pages "Fastenings" category should identify somewhere at "Unit 7, Featureless Light Industrial Estate, Outskirts of Nowheresville" which will sell you 1000 or (if approached with sufficient supplication) the 8 you're after for a couple of quid into the beer fund ;-)

They also sound very like IKEA fittings - is that an IKEA bed? If you have an IKEA not too far away, they'll give/sell you missing bitnpiecen at the Crustomer Service counter - just be prepared to wait till your ticket number comes up!

HTH, Stefek

[James Salisbury]

Try

[Matthew Ames]

Good idea... I;ll see if I can nab some from work :-)

Beer... if only I had the spare cash, the horses eat any spare money that the gf has not already nicked from my wallet! Maybe I had better clean her car first!

Not sure if it is an ikea bed (no stores are near by anyhow), but I had considered that as an option....

Cheers, Matt

[Peter Parry]

some beds are held together by parallel threaded bolts a bit like the Unifix Unibolt

[BIGEYE]

[Andy Dingley]

Isaac Lord. Found in a few towns, or they do mail order.

(AFAIR)

They're either screws or bolts. On a bed I'd guess they're bolts going into a round barrel nut (check you've still got them too). IL have a big range of all the bits, much better than Screwfix.

Screws for chipboard end-grain are magic, but Isaac Lord have them too.