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The cosmetic "selector" on Tonya has been wiggly for two years.
That's because there's a 3/32" roll pin through a 2.5mm hole.
I finally ordered an M2.5x10 spring pin to fix the wobble.
Did I say I ordered a pin?
No, I ordered 500 of them.
$6.88 shipped.
I hit this problem a lot. I end up with vast quantities of something because they're not readily available locally and only in bulk if you want a reasonable price.
It isn't just you. I can't tell you the number of "bulk pack" or "assortment" boxes of things I have around here because it was the only reasonable way to order them online or buy them locally for anything resembling a reasonable price. In some cases, it was about the same price to buy a whole bunch of them instead of just the one I needed. Often the shipping cost is the same, and often the bulk pack or assortment includes a storage box or something else useful for essentially free.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thing happen with drill bits. I have a few really old firearms that fire obsolete .32 rimfire and .38 rimfire ammo. There is a way to make reloadable ammo for them through a long, drawn out process of converting centerfire brass to take .22 rf and .27 rf blanks as the primer/propellant. One step is to drill the primer pocket straight through to tightly, but not too tightly hold the blank. Naturally, none of the standard fractional bits are the correct size for either. I had to order fractional metric bits. It ended up taking a 5.6mm bit for the .22 blank and a 6.2mm for the .27 blank. I also bought the ones that were 0.1mm bigger and smaller because I wasn't sure which would work. Of course none of these came as singles. They were all in six and twelve packs. Only needing two different bits, now I have over fifty for which I have no use. Maybe I'll send them to Phil at Busted Nuckles. He seems to like odd, machinist things....
ReplyDeleteYeah, what SoftwareJanitor says. I go through that on everything I buy for the metal shop. Needed a 3/32" spring pin, had to buy an assortment of a hundred.
ReplyDeleteOne time, I thought I'd outwit the system and just go get whatever it was at the hardware store (some odd-sized #8 socket head cap screws if I recall). I got the few I needed and a few spares. I ended up spending more than a box of 100.
My solution to all the bulk hard to get fasteners is to bag them in 10s or 20s and sell em on fleabay at a tidy profit. lots of folks want 10 and wont buy 100 cheaper. Good selling!!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the time AEAN Mud Dog was working on an A-6 smash light (aka Oscillating Anti-Collision Light). If I rememeber, it was on the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. Maybe he had made 3rd class by then. I don't remember...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, one section of the frame was loose, so he needed three rivets to replace the loose ones. He failed to pay attention to the unit of issue (how many you would get for each item ordered).
He ordered three, but the unit of issue was pounds, not each, and he got three pounds of the rivets.
And US Navy supply folks get extra pissy if you try and give stuff back...