Spare nuts and washers - discussion in chandlers

[SAMYL]

Force 4 at Deacon's have a pair of revolving racks upstairs with dozens of little drawers for different sizes and types of bolts, screws, washers, nuts, etc. Don't know if that's a general Force 4 thing or something they inherited from when it was an independent, but if the latter they were quite right to keep it. I'd be annoyed if they got rid of the drawers and only sold a few plastic packs.

Pete

The trouble with "loose" bits and pieces is that they become very sticky and stick to customers fingers..............

That's why most chandlers sell them in bubble packs, much easier to control.

[nigelmercier]

I always buy extras for exactly the same reason...

I buy nuts, bolts, washers etc by adding at least 5 to their number. My mate didn't seem to understand this: I sent him to buy a nut, but we were not sure of the size. I would have bought half a dozen in several sizes.

He came back with one, wrong size. Another trip, one nut, wrong size. And again. Finally got the right one, and it fell overboard

[mjcoon]

... Should the extras survive, they go in the big bucket of stainless fittings for some unspecified future use.

BTW, are they mostly sufficiently magnetic to be picked up by one of those retrieval tools?

Mike.

[mjcoon]

Force 4 at Deacon's have a pair of revolving racks upstairs with dozens of little drawers for different sizes and types of bolts, screws, washers, nuts, etc. Don't know if that's a general Force 4 thing or something they inherited from when it was an independent, but if the latter they were quite right to keep it. I'd be annoyed if they got rid of the drawers and only sold a few plastic packs.

Do they also have an assistant who glares at you when he's gone upstairs to fetch sink plugs when you wanted 13A? (Not sure if they'd have fork handles.)

Mike.

[prv]

BTW, are they mostly sufficiently magnetic to be picked up by one of those retrieval tools?

Dunno, my retrieval tool is a park-keeper's litter-picker. Used for fishing things out of the depths of my long-keeled bilge.

Do they also have an assistant who glares at you when he's gone upstairs to fetch sink plugs when you wanted 13A?

You misunderstand - these racks are available for customer ferreting, not kept behind the counter for staff only. They don't provide anything up there to put the bits in though, so you have to come down with them all clutched tightly in your hot little fist and have them bagged up at the till.

I do wonder whether they have to spend much time sorting out the drawers after people have put things back in the wrong places - if that is a problem they cope with it well, because such mixing is fairly rare.

Pete

[Simondjuk]

Well, I only have a little boat, and only been accumulating screws for three winters. The current bucket is now full though.

Pete

Ah, I had the BIG bucket in the shed in mind. It's about the size of one of those large tubs of emulsion paint and reloading it is almost a shovel job. Most of what's in it is not even stainless. I should really sort it out.

I keep just a small tub of assorted stainless bolts, screws and washers on the boat.