Strato50

Hey all!

Now, as most of us are aware, the various & many set / grub screws that we use to hold our tanks together / axles on / track tensioners tight, are the M3 or 3mm variety, on which you use a 1.5mm allen driver.

Now, my question is, what size is the typical gear box held down with? Ie, the Mato's / Taigens that bolt onto Asiatam base plates, among others... are they M3 as well?

I've found a decent supply of allen-head bolts that I think would be less prone to stripping out & therefore be safer to tighten down on items like tensioners & even final drive shaft (provided there clear..)

Take a look! http://lampizator.eu/shop/viewitem.php?productid=110

Also I'd like to know if anyone has a recommended source for such hardware, thanks!

Ronan87

I don't know about bolts but on my tanks it's always screws, usually Phillip heads.

jarndice

Strato, I get all my nut & bolts and a whole lot more from modelfixings, Here in the U K it is nearly always next day delivery, they have a very wide range of fixings and all aimed towards hobbyists, they do supply overseas as well. If you GOOGLE modelfixings you will find them.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

What about RTL Fasteners ?


~ Craig ~

RC19

Strato you could try fastenal I have good luck there.

rivetcounter

M3 are available anywhere they are nothing special neither is the standard 1.5mm thread just about any hardware shop will sell these in a variety of lengths, metals and finishes, I would imagine that some coming from Asia could be of poor quality hence why they damage easily

Ex_Pat_Tanker

I think I got a bunch quite cheaply off of Amazon.com - have a search there...

ssrc30

Home Hardware, Home Depot, Cambodian Tire... I've had good luck at all those places. If you have a Princess Auto, they may have them as well.

FreakyDude

maybe in Germany this is the case but it is certainly not the case around the world. Metric is not the only measurement system.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

but it is the only one used by anyone who is serious about manufacturing...

M3 hardware is available on amazon.com, and cheaper than in Europe

Love To build

My Feedback: (30)

I picked them up at Fastenal, but they only sell bags of 100 locally.

Strato50

HMm alright, I'll have to take a set of calipers to my gearbox mounting screws as thats primarily what I want to replace with allen head bolts.. so I can snug them down nicely would stripping the really weak Phillips heads. I have a feeling they are m4 or m5.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Rtl is where I get all mine, and they have some great tools also!

rivetcounter

[quote]ORIGINAL: FreakyDude

maybe in Germany this is the case but it is certainly not the case around the world. Metric is not the only measurement system.
Freaky, someone else used this argument not long back but that person said “in the real world people use AF” with a little research I found that only 3 countries still use the AF system 2 are third world countries, England still uses miles, feet, pints and gallons but also uses meters, litres, and kilos so something like 98% of the world uses metric not just Germany, the French in 1799 introduced the metric system mètre des Archives -kilogramme des Archives, so if you can’t find these common bolts in the US or Canada then the world is your oyster I would suggest ebay.co.uk but postage will be expensive or you could try Mexico or Argentina postage should be much less or as Ex-pat has said twice Amazon

Ronan87

True, but metric, i find, is 10x easier to work with. Makes complete sense and i didn't need to google/read up on how to understand the metric system for screws/etc.

The problem in NA is everyone is all up with their 1/62th inch, which is ridiculous. The imperial system is just weird... even in England they have Imperial/Metric togethere.

Canada is suppose to be using the metric system, but i find that a LOT of the hardware (especially the cheaper quality stuff) is made in China for the US and then also sent to Canada. So only imperial system is written on it.


Yupp! The interesting thing in the US is how the 'serious' quality hardware is ALSO written in the metric system (alons side the imperial one of course).

Strato50

I work in aviation and the entire industry is primarily imperial, minus a few oddballs like Eurocopter and Airbus... and even the they require special tools and are ridiculously expensive to maintain.

Can anyone tell me the standard gearbox mounting screw size? :\

Ronan87

I can tell you it's not imperial in Europe (aviation industry that is). They work in metric but will have everything written up in imperial if it goes to the US. It has caused a lot of issues in the past.

Most big industries had to learn to work in the imperial system along side the metric one. Some even standardize to the imperial one. Why? United States of America. You want to make SURE your industry is easy to understand/used/etc by the Americans.

As for the screw sizes, honestly your best bet is to get that tool to figure it out. I forgot what's its called...

Strato50

I did some experimenting and answered a couple of my own questions.

On Asiatam (and therefore Taigen metal hulls) tanks at least, everything is M3, INCLUDING the gearbox mounting points... they looked bigger but they're the same size as the set screws!

SO, I've ordered up a couple lengths of M3 hex-head bolts, for my gearbox's and for the idler adjust point, from [link=http://www.jrhobbyhardware.com/shop/]these guys (http://www.jrhobbyhardware.com)[/link], they have a great selection, good pricing and it's easy to navigate.