Main > Main Forum
Questions about Carriage Bolts
rampy:
--- Quote from: Jakobud on April 14, 2003, 01:08:40 am ---You will not find what you need at Home Depot. They just have regular old lumber carriage bolts. Just plain grey metal (and some galvonized ones too). But they will just not look good on a CP. You need to find some nice black ones like Happs or Bob Roberts sells.
--- End quote ---
That's a good point jacobud... but just to offer alternatives/options/solutions... If you get the hardware store variety you can go at the stamps with a wheel grinder, and/or you could paint the heads with that high temperature paint.
If you're ordering from bob roberts (or happs UK) anyways, the "official" carriage bolts clearly the better hardware choice asthetically.
FYI, i'm not that great with math, but what's the cm/metric equivalent to 3/16", european arcade distributors have to secure their joysticks to their CP's with something =P?
rampy
Grasshopper:
Thanks for all the replys everyone. I didn't expect to get so many for such a mundane topic. I can confirm that I live in the UK. Perhaps I should have made that clear from outset.
It looks like 3/16" is the way to go.
SNAAAKE: Thanks for your offer to post me some bolts. I actually need more than 8, probably a minimum of 14 - 8 for the joysticks, and 6 to hold down the edges of the Plexiglass. I'll speak to Happ first to see if they are flexible over the 100 bolt minimum order. If it's no dice then I may get back to you.
I'm not sure about the Super clones. I fitted them to my prototype panel and found it difficult to hit the diagonals even with the actuator fitted in the 8 way position. They seem subtly different to ordinary Supers. However I'll reserve final judgement until I've fitted them to a full size panel. I guess I could always just fit the handles to standard Supers or Competitions.
Rampy: I would guess the metric equivalent of 3/16" is M5. However no-one seems to sell carriage bolts in that size locally.
I've thought of a couple of other things I need from happ - spade connectors (they are available locally but fairly expansive), and strong springs for Super and Competition joysticks. It looks like it won't be hard to make up a minimum order after all.
rampy:
hey grasshopper... for my super clones from x-arcade I needed to adjust the little metal actuator arms for the microswitch till i got the feel on the diagonals that I liked.
*shrug* ymmv and good luck with the carriage bolt quest (even the mom and pop hardware stores didn't have them? I'm surprised).
rampy
Jakobud:
Yeah it's funny how difficult it is to find those kinds of carriage bolts that you find in arcade cabinet CP's.
Infrasonic:
Forget carraige bolts, they are almost perfect but not quite. I use #10 (3/16) stainless steel BUTTON HEAD SCREWS and nylon locknuts, these are available at Home Depot but are expensive. It shouldn't matter whether they are coarse or fine, the only really important thing is not to mess up the heads while driving them. As long as they aren't damaged in installation, they won't scratch your hands and they will outlast anything else.