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When designing various braces and brackets for an outdoor, weather-exposed, long-aged (many years) purpose, what are you thoughts on bolt diameter and material? I'm using typical plated steel for the actual bands that wrap around a stove pipe to support it from the side on arms, and I'm still thinking about what the support arms themselves will be (probably aluminum tube or thin-walled conduit, perhaps with a shaft of rebar down the middle for a little extra strength), but I'm totally unsure about the fasteners.
Nuts & bolts obviously come in a variety of diameters and materials. The cheapest and by far most prevalent (by shelf-space) at the store are the zinc-plated fasteners. They seem to be pretty general purpose and I have no idea what applications require upgrading to the next level, either in demands on strength or weather-resistance. Above that, there are at least two options: the pseudo-copper-brass-colored grade 8 bolts (I guess they're called "yellow zinc"), and the stainless steel bolts. Both are *much* more expensive than the zinc-plated bolts, but the stainless steel is also considerably more expensive than the brassy grade 8 bolts.
First question: For a given diameter, are those yellow zinc grade 8 bolts less strong, more strong, or equivalent to stainless?...or if that's the wrong question, then do they "last longer" or "survive weather" better or worse or equivalent to stainless (I can't believe they are more weather resistant than stainless, but are they functionally equivalent in that regard)?
Second question: When "locking" the ends of a band around the stove pipe together, or when attached the ends of the support arms to the band and to a support pole nearby, which of these three materials (or a fourth material I missed) would you use *and* what diameter would you use?
I usually buy the cheap zinc stuff for my builds because I see no reason not to, but I've been thinking I might use the yellow grade 8s for this job...but I'm not particularly inclined to super-splurge on stainless unless there's a reason to believe it would vastly outperform the grade 8s. What do you think of all this?
On a side note, I'm really curious if there is a tradeoff in diameter vs. material: Is a wider zinc-plated bolt just as strong as a thinner grade 8 or stainless bolt...or is that really not how the issue is approached?
Thanks, just conversing, it seemed like an interesting discussion.
Cheers!
Nuts & bolts obviously come in a variety of diameters and materials. The cheapest and by far most prevalent (by shelf-space) at the store are the zinc-plated fasteners. They seem to be pretty general purpose and I have no idea what applications require upgrading to the next level, either in demands on strength or weather-resistance. Above that, there are at least two options: the pseudo-copper-brass-colored grade 8 bolts (I guess they're called "yellow zinc"), and the stainless steel bolts. Both are *much* more expensive than the zinc-plated bolts, but the stainless steel is also considerably more expensive than the brassy grade 8 bolts.
First question: For a given diameter, are those yellow zinc grade 8 bolts less strong, more strong, or equivalent to stainless?...or if that's the wrong question, then do they "last longer" or "survive weather" better or worse or equivalent to stainless (I can't believe they are more weather resistant than stainless, but are they functionally equivalent in that regard)?
Second question: When "locking" the ends of a band around the stove pipe together, or when attached the ends of the support arms to the band and to a support pole nearby, which of these three materials (or a fourth material I missed) would you use *and* what diameter would you use?
I usually buy the cheap zinc stuff for my builds because I see no reason not to, but I've been thinking I might use the yellow grade 8s for this job...but I'm not particularly inclined to super-splurge on stainless unless there's a reason to believe it would vastly outperform the grade 8s. What do you think of all this?
On a side note, I'm really curious if there is a tradeoff in diameter vs. material: Is a wider zinc-plated bolt just as strong as a thinner grade 8 or stainless bolt...or is that really not how the issue is approached?
Thanks, just conversing, it seemed like an interesting discussion.
Cheers!
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