I hate Home Depot!

[MarkF]

I got a pair of extra large lids for my BMW panniers so I headed off to Home Depot for fasteners. First I was looking for 4mm long pop rivets. No luck. They had 3, 4 and 5mm but only short and medium length in 4 mm. Of course all lengths were available in 3 and 5 mm. So then I looked for some stainless cap screws that fit in a 4mm hole. Found them but only 3/4 inch and longer. 1/2 or 5/8 would do. I was gonna buy them anyway but guess what? No nylon insert nuts for that size. Plenty for all the other sizes. I just can't win. I'm gonna try a real hardware store tomorrow morning. You know the kind, closes at 6pm and can't compete with Home Depot.

MarkF

[BradfordBenn]

Yup.

I go to the local store around the corner first.

[James.A]

The TRUE VALUE hardware store in my home town even has metric hardware in stainless. I don't mind paying a slightly higher price to keep them in business.

[MarkF]

Originally posted by woodnsteel
The TRUE VALUE hardware store in my home town even has metric hardware in stainless. I don't mind paying a slightly higher price to keep them in business.

I agree! They're just never open late.

MArkF

[Braddog]

when you go to one of the megastores like Home Depot, yet you can't find the one little thing that would make your trip a success.

Whatever you do, don't take your significant other along, otherwise you'll end up spending $200 and walk away without that one little thing that you came for in the first place.

I tend to favor the old fashioned hardware stores myself, but from where I live, it's not near as convenient as at least 2 Home Depot's.

[dlearl476]

Mark, you're killing me! I just had the same epiphany last week. Home Depot always has every size but the one I need. And I'm not talking bike hardware either (I gave up on them for that a long time ago. Luckily, I have a real hardware store closer than HD) I went in to get a replacement for a leaking sprinkler bit last week and they had EVERY SIZE but 1/2". You guessed it, that's what I needed.
I give up.

[MarkF]

Originally posted by dlearl
Mark, you're killing me!

I give up.

Glad I could help. Went to True Value or was it Ace this morning. Of course they don't stock the 4mm rivets at all! But they did have three different brands of 3 and 5mm rivets. Oh, well. Guess I'll drill out the holes for a 5mm rivet.

MArkF

[username]

the great irony of home despot is that they dont have a good stock of nuts-N-bolts, which are the bedrock of any project.

i had several trips there where they had 'everything but what i needed' and i realized that when that keeps happening to me, they dont have even close to everything. basically, before going to the store, you have to get inside the head of their inventory control people. you just know they have a curve showing a gaussian distribution of bolt sales. (if they lump the machine screws and wood screws together, it's probably bi-modal, but you get the picture.) anyway, if youre looking for that bolt that is 3 standard deviations off the mean, youre...welll, youre screwed! and if you think they'll have it, youre...well, you're nuts! (this is fun. :D)

ive learned that there are only two places to go to find anything that isnt a 10-32 x 1" pan head phillips machine screw - either the little hardware store in my neighborhood that is never open, or to my friend's house where he has countless large coffee cans full of fasteners and other weird pieces of hardware that he has saved over the years. he's also got plenty of scrap lumber, paint, solvents, and tools.

[gambrinus]

Mark, just a tip on the rivets.. Get yourself some scrap pieces of metal or plastic and do some practice runs. It takes a certain "touch" or technique that is hard to describe to get a rivet to really grab and hold the way you want it to. 5 mins of practice will make a world of difference. I know this from replacing over 100 rivets, both pop and hammer, on my Land Rover project. Good Luck and have fun.

RW