What to do with 98 M6 pan head machine screws?

Jun 23, 2016 25 Replies

I've lost (don't ask me how because I don't know) two of the four screws holding a computer chair seat onto the pedestal.



They are roughly 5.84mm in diameter which I take to be M6, thread pitch of



1mm, and thread length of 14mm.

So far I have located a bag of 100 * 12mm at RS for £4.25 (plus whatever shipping).



Seems like a hassle free fix, but this does leave me with 98 spare machine screws.



Ho hum.


Dave R



No guarantees, but try essentracomponents.co.uk

They sell small amounts.

You don't have such things hanging around the house already?

My local DIY place sells them in singles too...

5 x M6x25 for 24p in Wilkinsons. Complete with nuts as an aid to cutting to length.

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Leaving enough for a new hacksaw blade.

They may do a 12mm size in their pick and mix. A small bag for ?1.98 IIRR

michael adams

...

Weird. The page comes up when Googling, showing the 28p price. But not when clicking on the link at the top of the page which Google threw up. Wilko do sell machine screws or at least did a few weeks ago. All this means maybe is that they're not available online.

michael adams

...

Last time I tried to buy something like these singly, I was charged around £1 each.

Small quantities from scores of ebay vendors.

Faced with a similar problem (a TV wall bracket, but no screws to fix the TV) I asked my local garage "10mm M5 mate? how many - 50?"

They seemed disappointed that I only wanted four...

I think a model shop would probably sell you M6 bolts too. At a horrendous markup

If you can find one.

But they are so cheap anyway

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Toolstation do packs of 25 but 20mm long if you have a hacksaw.

I would now like to kill whoever designed the sort function on their web site.

They only (I think) seem to do 32mm length in M6.

I will wander round to the local hardware places for a shufti in a bit (as long as we don't get more thunderstorms and torrential rain).

I don't have a local Wilko and can't be arsed to cut anything to length of I can get what I want delivered for under £10. DIY is wonderful but there are limits :-)

Cheers

Dave R

Actually a dremel with a cutting disk and a vice makes light work of that task *if you have them*.

I think we have two shops here which would do them in singles for a sensible price. On Tuesday I spent 35p on a 25mm M6 C/S screw, nut and a nylock nut, which I thought was entirely fair - yes, I'd expect them to be cheaper in bulk, but I only wanted the one.

Chopping an M6 screw is not exactly the most onerous DIY :-)

When you say fair, do you mean fair to the shop? There's the staff time, not just serving you, but also getting the stock in and putting it away. Rates, rent, cleaning, insurance .... You paid for less than 3 minutes of staff time at minimum wage, so I hope you spoke quickly and didn't stop to chat. :)

Of course, that's why the sheds sell these in small packs for £2-3.

Vice yes, every house should have one. But dremel? Hacksaw is all you need...

They sound very like the bolts used in cage nuts in computer racking IIRC. If you have a friendly IT person nearby, ask. Hell, I'll pop 2 in the post- I have a bagfull.

I got friendly chat too :-)

It almost certainly fails a simplistic accountants view. Anybody doing

80/20 on it would stop selling that stuff. But life is more complicated, and both shops seem to be doing well. This may well be because they do sell the useful little things - which means that we'll also go there for the bigger stuff too.

They also don't have the overhead of a big computer controlled stock management system. I suspect the management of the stock of these things is "the pot is getting empty, time to buy another box". Sheds can't work that way.

The one where I bought the screw this time is the local DIY independent. I've mentioned before that it's about 1/10 the size of a massive B+Q, yet seems to have more useful stock in it, and is a much nicer place to shop.

I got my fence stuff from a local firm (£250 or so) simply because they are so helpful about everything else, plus they stock good quality stuff on the whole. So, they were more expensive than the sheds for the fencing, but worth it.

Sounds like the DIY independent in Herne Bay. They very rarely fail me.

I wanted a bottle of a specific brass restorer a while ago. I ordered it from CPC, and it came. Next time I was in the local shop, I found they had exactly the same thing - and the rest of the range. Cheaper.

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