On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:40:24 -0500, aemeijers
wrote:

Around here, Tractor Supply has pretty good fasteners, including grade 8
if your function calls for that. Farmers don't like to do the same
repair job twice, I guess.
--

Same here, and TS sells their hardware by the pound. It's always
where I go first. I just bought a boatload of grade 2 & 5 carriage
bolts, nuts, washers, etc. for around $8 ($1.99/lb). The grade 8
are a little more expensive if you need them, but not unreasonable.

I was at Lowes later for something else, so just did a quick double
check to see how far off they were. Grade 1 bolts alone were nearly
$15.

8 (1/2 x4) = $8.80 ($1.10 each).
4 (1/2 x6) = $6.00 ($1.50 each).

The irony is that I'm using a plan I found at Lowes.