LOL, yeah that was stupid. You're the first to call me out on it though! I've posted this in another thread and I guess nobody noticed. Or they knew they couldn't fix my kinda stupid...
I tack welded the heads of two screws together to create that threaded rod, and only after I had the mounts all brazed up did I realize what I had done. I thought I might be able to break the weld, but alas I had actually done a good job at something for once. After swearing at it for a minute also didn't work, I ended up cutting it with an angle grinder.