Switch plate screws - where to buy?

[Bob]

Have ivory switch plates & receptacle plates throughout the house. Over the years, the paint on the screws on the switch plates wears off and looks bad. This is probably due to wear when people put their hands on the whole switch plate instead of only the toggle part. I have exchanged several with the screws with receptacle screws (which don't get the wear). But, am out of receptacles to swap screws with.

I'd like to buy some new screws; checked with hardware store (ACE) and big box stores. They don't know of any individual screws for sale.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance. Bob-tx

[Edwin Pawlowski]

A real electrical supply store.

[cln]

I'ev seen them in stores here, keep an eye open, only caution is that most of them are plain white not almond or ivory.

cln

[Doug Miller]

Instead of asking clerks who don't know what their departments have in stock, just go to one of the stores and look. They have them.

Example:

or then search for item # 26589

[dicko]

I've seen them at Home Depot, at least the white ones...

-dickm

[Robert Allison]

Dealers Electric (I don't know what part of TX you are in) have them in Ivory, White, Black, Brown, Gray and Silver.

Nunn Electric has them. As does Summers, don't know about the other stores.

[nick hull]

Fingernail polish can cure that ;)

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

[hallerb]

plates are so cheap yoy can likely buy the plates with screws for just a tiny amount over just screw price.

thats what i concluded and new plates looked good

save some old ones for spares

[trader4]

I've seen the plate screws at HD, Lowes, etc. packaged in bags of 8 or so. Not sure what color though I would expect ivory to be common. Or any electrical supply.

[S. Barker]

lowes and hd have them. and hell for a dime, you can buy a whole new plate.

s

[Phisherman]

Clean and dry the screws and stick them into a block of Styrofoam. Spray paint (Rustoleum is a good paint). Allow 1 day to dry. Use your thumbnail or a plastic screwdriver to replace them. An electrical supply house should have them if you would rather purchase them.

[beecrofter]

I ust spray a spot of paint on a piece of cardboard in a silver dollar sized puddle and dip the screw heads.

[Norminn]

I have purchased screws, either at Lowes or HD. We had old ivory receptacles and plates, made uglier from 35 yrs aging. I went throught the paint thing just to change the plates and have screws to match, with the ugly receptacles remaining. Then I found the new screws at the local box store. When we had a couple of rooms painted, the painter suggested spray painting the receptacles, which I did. Used my handy Preval sprayer, as it doesn't have as much overspray as spray cans of Krylong. I made a template from cardboard to shield the wall, and stuck a short piece of folded paper into each slot of the plug to keep paint out. Paper just long enough I could get hold of it to pull it out and it didn't significantly block the spray. Worked like a charm. Cheaper than fooling around replacing the old plugs, and I'm careful when I plug stuff in not to scratch the paint.

[Mark Lloyd]

White is getting common too.

BTW, I'd rather have white. Ivory looks too much like something that's always dirty.

[John McGaw]

I've bought them at the borg -- no problem. I finally got tired of messing around though and found that Lowe's (or was it HD?) sells a neat little kit of assorted electrician's screws in a partitioned plastic box. I'm really surprised that Ace didn't have them though.

That probably wrapped ugly but you get the idea -- go to Ace's website and look under electrical -> wall plates.