Why are fixings supplied with things always rubbish?

Absolutely. The screws are also usually so short they'd only work on brick when the thing is most likely to go on a plastered wall.

On Jul 22, 10:40=A0pm, Gareth wrote:>

Almost everyone has found the problem I'd guess, and most reasonably competent people probably recognise it as well.

I just chuck them away by routine. It sounds like you have enough experience now to learn to do the same.

Arrrrggghhh!

Don't get me started!

Rule Number 1; Remove any screws & plugs supplied & bin them immediately.

You are so, so, so, so right!

And why do they use Phillips screws? And why do they make them from recycled cheese?

Only every piggin day.

I would really, really like to set up something like 'The Campaign for Clear English' but titled 'The Campaign for Decent Screws & Plugs'.

Anyone wanna help?

I have to agree the screws nowadays don't seem as good as the screws when I was younger.

Wall, bath, or thirteen amp?

Owain

Yup. Almost always start by ignoring any included fixings unless there is something particularly special about them. At least with you own, you know the screwdriver bit fits them well, and the plugs etc perform ok under load.

Almost always, typically 30mm screws to go through 5mm of fitting, 12mm of plaster and then a tapered point to tickle the brick (spell checkers don't cover that!). The stainless steel towel rail and shelf from Aldi actually are OK: about

Wall plugs may have worked well with traditional tapered screws. The modern stuff seems designed to *cut* into the work and with parallel thread doesn't expand the plug properly.

regards

Wasn't that one of the founding principles of 'The News of the World'?

Absolutely. Tiny little screws made of cheese is the usual problem.

Four candles.

IME plugs need to be a tighter fit these days. I find I'm using 5mm or

I shall once again sing the praises of Rawlplug 'Uno' plugs.

I use Quicksilver for plugs, Turbogold for everything else. I agree, Turbogold do chew up plugs & don't expand them enough.

Yes

Its just about inversal. I was shocked once - only once - when I found fixings that were not only man enough, but truly OTT, on a radiator I bought.

Unused mounting screws can go into a box, occasionally they prove very useful.

NT

Yep - all supplied plugs and very often the screws go in the bin and out come the Fischer or Uno plugs...

It's not even like Fischer or Uno cost much - especially in massive quantities...

Given the range of surfaces that people *might* have to fix to, it would be better to include one of the Fischer combination plugs that work in a variety of hollow and non hollow surfaces - eg:

Thinking on, the only two things I can remember being supplied with decent fixings were a Viessmann boiler (and so it should at the price) and a wall mount bracket for an LCD TV.

I recently purchased a cheapo TV wall bracket from Amazon, this one

Designer Habitat Wall Tilt Bracket for 32 - 55 inch LCD Plasma TV - Black £7.49 + £8.89 shipping