Classic & Vintage - non-bike hardware secrets?

I have taken too many Sunday trips to the home improvement store hoping to find some part that I can use to finish something I am working on. (Wouldn't it make more sense if LBS were open from 6pm to 3am all week long? When I am king, that will be the law.)

What little parts and bits have you discovered that work?

-chainring bolts and spacers?
-brake bolts?
-custom rack?
-pipe for handlebars?
-wheel axles?
-bearing parts?

I spent about 30 minutes the other day in the tractor supply store looking at their tractor transmission gears beefore I finally decided that I did not think it is easy to find a 3/4 wide SRAM chain. Oh well.

jim

I buy cheap bikes from the thrift shops and dumpster dive for the rest, then strip them down for miscellaneous pieces and parts. The parts get put in bins/boxes based on what they are very seldom do I have to chase parts when it comes time for a repair or build up. When I get an excess of things like saddles or pedals, they get hauled to the local bike charity to add to their parts selection, or given to the various cyclists I see around town that need a part. The only odd thing I have problems getting is stainless steel nuts bolts and washers in the smaller sizes. All of the local home centers do not carry SS cap screws under 6mm...go figure. I typically buy a handful of the more common small sizes a couple of times a year from a fastener specialty shop like Fastenal. My current fleet of bikes is over 30 with about 10 of those slated for disassembly for component parts. I average an accumulation rate of about 1 a week:rolleyes:

Aaron:)

oh sure. I do lots of that. But, for example, the kind of bike I find to salvage is the kind of bike that has a junky crankset with steel rings pressed onto the arms with no spacers or normal bolts.

Plus, often times on this unloved bikes it it the cheap little bolts and whatnot that are the more rusted. Sometimes those pieces can be brought back, and sometimes not.

[QUOTE=jgedwa]I have taken too many Sunday trips to the home improvement store hoping to find some part that I can use to finish something I am working on. (Wouldn't it make more sense if LBS were open from 6pm to 3am all week long? When I am king, that will be the law.)

What little parts and bits have you discovered that work?

-chainring bolts and spacers?
-brake bolts?
-custom rack?
-pipe for handlebars?
-wheel axles?
-bearing parts?

I'm a complete fanatic about sourcing parts from hardware shops, whenever I find a shop with a really good selection of fasteners, I'm in heaven.
I always go for all the stainless steel metric stuff that I can get, especially M5 button-head and Allen-head bolts for waterbottle bosses and fender/rack fittings, ditto the SS flat and lock washers which you can get even cheaper if you slect the bulk SAE sizes that will "work" with Metric bolts/nuts. I'm a big fan of metric Nylock-style nuts and favor the SS variety and the "jam nut nylock" which is a low profile nut and good for tight clearance applications. I've occasionally had good luck finding M3 SS machine screws in long sizes that can work as dropout adjusters...and WON'T RUST! The little springs for these are harder to find in a HW shop, but often they are as close as your collection of broken ballpoint pens...take a look. Look at the aluminum spacers and steel bushings (thicker than washers) for occasional help with axle/hub problems...happy hunting!

I never scrap a frame or major component without first salvaging all of the fasteners and other hardware bits. This has saved my @$$ a few times:
1) My latest Capo came missing one Agrati pedal dust cap. I just happen to have saved one from my first Capo, long after the original pedals fell apart.
2) My current Bianchi came with an aluminum BB lockring, which I damaged with my Sugino tool. (Embarrassed note: if you have an aluminum ring, you must use a full-circle wrench, not the common curved open hook.) Fortunately, I had saved the Italian-threaded steel lockring from my first Bianchi.
3) The belly pan on my VW Passat is secured by 4 plastic dowel pins, 5 metal dowel pins, and, in front center position, a 10mm nut. Needing a good flange and wanting fingertip convenience, I had my son braze a piece of brass stock across the face of a steel 10mm bicycle brake nut, making a crude-looking, but eminently practical, surrogate fastener.

I have salvaged all kinds of hardware over the years and am constantly amazed at how much eventually gets used. Someone gave me an early seventies Nishiki Olympic that was trashed and I used almost everything that I harvested off that thing somewhere else. Cable stops, guides, small fasteners, etc.

Another good source of fasteners is those Dorman fastener displays at auto part shops. They have plenty of metric, stainless and such. They use drawers to store and categorize them. Also, they are higher grade fasteners than the Home Dump sells.

Another useful resource is a local electronic surplus store. Great for small fasteners and rivets. They have saved me on more than one occasion. :D (For you San Diegans, it is Gateway Electronics in Kearny Mesa)

OK, I was being too coy, I guess. Let me try more directly: anyone found a decent substitute for chainring bolts, or especially spacers?

p.s., I rode my bike in a driving snow at night to get to the grocery store tonight. Fun.

1) My latest Capo came missing one Agrati pedal dust cap.

I'm always missing pedal dust caps!