Roland reprints:
> "Be wary of all Grade 5 and Grade 8 fasteners of foreign origin that do
> not have any manufacturers head marks. The Grade 8 head marks shown in
> the accompanying chart should be eliminated from you hardware inventory.
> (They then show two heads, one with the three lines indicating a grade 5
> bolt and a grade 8 with 6 lines, but neither have a manufacturer marking.
> Then there is a picture of bolt heads with manufacturer markings that you
> should get rid of.)
(Doesn't a Grade 8 have _5_ lines?)
Thanks to the SOL list last year, I was enlightened in the ways of fastener
coding. Since then I have routinely picked up Grade 5 bolts from the local
True Value Hardware and used them without incident. Recently, however, I
was poking around the local Handy Andy chain outlet, which crows about the
quality of all their stuff, and was _very_ surprised to find that the bolts
they sell in bulk had no visible grade marks (or manufacturer marks, come
to think of it) at all! Now, according to my notes from last year, this
implies a Grade 3 bolt, which I don't think I've ever seen in captivity
before, and it also seems to indicate that the manufacturer wishes to remain
anonymous.
We do _not_ want to use Grade 3 bolts on our cars, do we? How inferior are
Grade 3 bolts as compared to Grade 5, assuming that they are legitimately
graded parts? Presumably they can't be torqued as high as Grade 5?
I plan to stick with my True Value purchases, btw...
-- Andy
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