Loving stainless steel nuts and bolts

[The Metal Butcher]

I found some crap furnature bolts once that I put some stainless locknuts I had. It was for a rake, so I didn't really care. When the first two siezed up, I just assumed by thread pitch was slightly wrong and cranked her home. Crappy field repair ya know. Well on the last two I put a drop oil on, and they sailed right down. I have been wary ever since.

[Fasturn]

Coat with this and you can sleep at night.

[Doozer]

Agree with most everything you wrote Dooze except for the "get it gun" if I have a direct line to engage the gun then it's actually my go too tool for stubborn nuts and bolts, but i use kids gloves --- I set the air input way down -- I then hit the fastener with penetrating oil --- I then let the gun do it's thing --- vibrate and work the penetrating oil into area and then hear that ZING sound when things finally break loose....

Yes, I have heard many people like to use the impact wrench to help shock loose rusty or seized fasteners.
I do believe that works. Probably a very good idea. I just have a hard time to determine if the bolt is actually
moving or if it is seizing. With a hand wrench I can always (most always) tell. Maybe I am being too careful
and need to expand my horizons.

-Doozer

[tom_d]

I am an old guy and keep my stuff forever.I have a very large selection of stainless nuts and bolts. For the last 20 years or so ,I have been routinely replacing plain steel hardware with stainless ,when I am repairing things.I know that there is an old wives tale about stainless nuts and bolts seizing up. Dont believe it.Now I am not talking about high strength suspension parts.I work on a lot of outdoor stuf ,like mowers ,four wheelers ect, If you cant afford stainless bolts ,try using stainless nuts with plain steel bolts. You can buy ss nuts online almost as cheap as plain steel The next time you take it apart ,you will be smiling..Edwin Dirnbeck

Not an old wives tail. The non-magnetic stainless is a bit soft and can gall easily. Use a lube of some sort, especially when stainless on stainless, or stainless on aluminum. While you often can get away with it dry, for most people Murphy's Law dictates that it will seize solid when you have no spare hardware, or the screw is going into a non-replaceable part. These are easy to address issues and if the material is strong enough then yeah, it's much better to deal with stainless than rusted hardware. Nicer cosmetically too.

[A.K. Boomer]

Yes, I have heard many people like to use the impact wrench to help shock loose rusty or seized fasteners.
I do believe that works. Probably a very good idea. I just have a hard time to determine if the bolt is actually
moving or if it is seizing. With a hand wrench I can always (most always) tell. Maybe I am being too careful
and need to expand my horizons.

-Doozer

It's a great thing - I have a little 3/8" for the small stuff again just dial in a low setting and what else works is "reverse to forward shots" every once in awhile try to tighten, you'd be surprised at how much that can help - the fastener is "stuck" in two different places - the threads and the place it's jammed against and holding things together --- actually the latter is the first place of resistance as it's diameter is larger,,, get it too move back and forth even a little and then the other usually will go next...

[deltap]

Most hardware store stainless (8-18) is weaker than grade 5 steel fasteners. If replacing grade 5, new fasteners should be at least the same strength.

[Doc Nickel]

All of the above. I helped work on (as in repair) a commercial fishing boat starting when I was a teen. Never-seize and stainless bolts were an absolute must. As others have noted, I, too, have had a nut seize on a bolt just by hand-turning it. That's the nature of the beast- it "cold welds" if you so much as look at it funny.

But pretty much anything as a coating or lubricant will prevent that. We used never-seize, of course, because that's what it's fir, but barring that, a drop of motor oil, gun oil, a wipe of beeswax, spray WD-40 (although you risk it drying and galling later upon removal) Loctite, pipe sealant, whatever. Anything that prevents dry metal-on-metal contact.

Following that advice, I've been using stainless on anything that might get exposed to weather. Cars, trucks, outdoor fixtures, trailers, you name it. As noted, it's often been a godsend going back to the assembly years later.

But, also as others have noted, hardware-store grade stainless is a pretty low grade. The rule of thumb I was told, years ago, was consider it basically Grade 3. Better can be had, but if you're just picking it up from ACE or Home Depot or something like that, it's pretty soft. Worth keeping in mind if you're dealing with something that may have a lot of stress on it.

Doc.

[JoeLee]

If I have to remove any SS hardware, or any hardware and I'm not sure if any anti seize compound was used I use this stuff................. https://blasterproducts.com/product/...ter-penetrant/

JL.............

[J Tiers]

I've seized SS hardware just by running a nut on by hand. They were new though which makes it more likely.

Yep. You need to get grease or never-seez on there to "poison" the surface.

[oxford]

I used to work a place that made equipment for the food industry, like stated above, seizing stainless hardware is NOT an old wives tale.

Use a high quality anti seize for stainless and you’ll have a sporting chance of getting it apart.

[psomero]

Inferior mechanical properties, that SS crap. Good luck on high proof joints when the heads pop off.

[Ian B]

Edward, I'm totally with you on this one. I have been assembling drawers to fit into 19" racks, nad I'm using stainless steel fastenings, all Ebay/China. I've amassed a nice collection in the M2, M3 & M4 sizes, various heads. I love them! Strong enough for what I need, great finish, they look nice and they're dirt cheap.

Remember: shiny is good.

Ian

[J Tiers]

Inferior mechanical properties, that SS crap. Good luck on high proof joints when the heads pop off.

You know, any joint in a high confidence structure needs to be "designed". When a fastener fails, you used the wrong one or the wrong quantity, or used it wrongly. An SS bolt is as good as any other fastener when used properly.

[Willy]

You know, any joint in a high confidence structure needs to be "designed". When a fastener fails, you used the wrong one or the wrong quantity, or used it wrongly. An SS bolt is as good as any other fastener when used properly.

Yep, don't expect to get high quality/high strength fasteners in the Home Depot bolt bin, although they do typically meet low stress consumer applications quite satisfactorily.
I've used some very high quality fasteners on some custom suspension applications where appearance did take a back seat to performance.
ARP makes some very nice stuff rated @180,000 psi tensile strength, not cheap though.

[Illinoyance]

Most hardware store stainless (8-18) is weaker than grade 5 steel fasteners. If replacing grade 5, new fasteners should be at least the same strength.

Actually 18-8 stainless bolts have about 3/4 the strength of a non heat treated bolt. Way less than a grade 5. There is a risk replacing steel bolts with stainless.