"George" wrote in message
...
On 12/16/2009 09:44, evodawg wrote:
SMS wrote:

Jon Danniken wrote:

Be careful what you build with the fasteners you buy from the bulk bin
at
Home Depot.

Okay, then it's not just me that has that problem with lag bolts from
Home Depot. I've become anal about drilling pilot holes that are long
enough and large enough diameter to deal with these crappy lag bolts.

Where can you buy good quality lag bolts though?
I really doubt that you can these days since they're all made in CHINA. I
called one of the suppliers for a specialty screw and asked them about
where their products are made, you can guess what his reply was. He also
told me that there is not any fasteners made in the US anymore. Unless
it's
made for the Military.

Unfortunately folks decided it was a good thing not to have manufacturing
and good jobs in the US so things are made in China.

Location of manufacture doesn't tell the whole story. As long as things
have been manufactured the buyer could specify they wanted a cheaper
version of something. Big box places maintain their profit by beating
suppliers to death (and driving them off shore) by demanding the lowest
possible price. Often that means the lowest possible quality.

There is no rocket science involved in making typical commodity fasteners
such as lag bolts. A manufacturer can easily make sure they have the
correct metal chemistry and use correct hardening methods. But that costs
money. Big box simply wants something that looks like a lag bolt. A buyer
can also specify they want an item that complies with whatever standards
are involved such as SAE. That costs more.

And I suspect the irony to this is that now that HD et al have ravaged the
marketplace, when you DO want something of higher quality or un-BigBox, it
will cost MUCH more than it would have had HD not raped, pillaged, and
plundered the industry.
--
EA