Why are fixings supplied with things always rubbish?

[Huge]

Ditto. BFO screws. Given that there's a grands worth of TV hanging on it, I'm bloody glad, too.

[PeterC]

The Fischer or similar, with 'wings' seem to be OK - at least they don't spin in the hole.

[PeterC]

I used Turbo Ultra stainless for my shed and found that the disadvantage to these fancy threads is that the hole isn't very good if a screw has to be removed and put back. It seems that the design is for speed of fitting and the cut thread is weaker.

[Gareth]

Yes, I often do but the screw holes on this item were recessed and fatter screws wouldn't have fitted. Initially I didn't think the screws were fat enough for standard red plugs because the supplied plugs were so skinny, but fortunately they were.

[dennis]

$MART-> HK-$MKAT-HK-$MPG-G1-$MZG-F451&ekat=$EKAT-HK-EN

So about 100 times the cost of what they do supply then. 8-)

I usually have to bin the fixings as it needs a 65 mm screw to reach the blocks in most of my house.

[The Medway Handyman]

Something else that drives me mad "drill a hole of suitable size & insert plug" in the instructions!

Just tell me the 'kin size!

[John Rumm]

I have heard a number of people make that observation, but I don't buy it!

Modern plugs seem to work very well with modern screws - many opening more at the point of the plug than at the near end. Older style fibre or straight plastic cut to length plugs and tapered screws etc produce most gripping force at the shallow end of the hole - just where its least use.

[John Rumm]

If not, hammer a yellow one into the red one, and then screw. ;-)

[Steve Walker]

$MART->>>> HK-$MKAT-HK-$MPG-G1-$MZG-F451&ekat=$EKAT-HK-EN

My house isn't bad, but I remember from putting up wall cupboards in my parents' kitchen that the plaster thickness varies from 1" to 3" !!! I think that the brickies must have had a few that day and the plasterer had to work hard to straighten things up!

SteveW

[DavidM]

But would you believe what the instructions told you. I'd bet that the designer of the fitting and the writer of the instructions wouldn't know which end of a screwdriver from the other, much less having tested fitted the thing to a variety of surfaces!!

[DavidM]

I've even had quite expensive stainless steel door hinges supplied with stupidly small screws, and a poxy phillips head rather than posidrive.

[Weatherlawyer]

The problem extends to serious ironmunging. When you get a set of hinges for a door they come with throwaway screws that cost a bomb. I don't know what they are made of ring pulls form the 1970's?

But even if you get a box of real screws to cover you for such problems, they come from China where industrial standards have no effect on reality. You may as well get stuff made of china as made there.

When you can't expect fixings to fit all fittings you aught to be able to expect the standard pro parts to work. Whateve happened to the empire anyway?

We sold our shirts to Hong Kong in the 1960's and closed half of Manchester. Still, mustn't grumble.