3/8" Hex Bolt

Dr_Colossus

Anyone know where I can get a 3/8" hex bolt for a lawnmower blade. It's 2" long with 1" threaded with 24 tread. I've tried Woodies, Homebase, McQuinlans and Lenihans and they all just stock generic metric bolts in packs despite having lawnmowers and blades for sale.
Ideally looking for someplace near Dublin city center where I can pick up a single bolt without having to buy a pack of 5 or 10 or whatever. The lack of places selling or at least advertising that they sell various bolts is a bit confusing.

looksee

Have you looked for people doing lawnmower repairs? Afaik we have two repair shops in Tramore, so there should be a good few in Dublin.

Dr_Colossus

Yea I've tried a few but they're very hard to find and nothing near the city at all. Tried a number of car repair shops and DIY stores yesterday and no one had anything or couldn't even suggest a place to get one. There's a few speciality engineering places that are only open Mon to Fri so will try calling those tomorrow and see what kind of price they'd charge for postage etc. Shouldn't be this difficult to pick up a simple bolt.

Dr_Colossus

Just an FYI for anyone else in a similar situation in future. I ended up purchasing the bolt from the UK from Namrick.co.uk. Great site and company and offering some flexibility unlike the companies here in Ireland. Bolt was £0.44 after VAT and since postage was going to be the most expensive part of the order at £3.31 I ordered two bolts to have one as a spare for again.

After exhausting all the DIY and repair stores here in Dublin who only stocked metric bolts I then tried Hassetts www.hassetts.ie in Limerick and although helpful and had the bolt in stock for something like €0.88 they would only deal with their courrier service and therefore postage would be a staggering €9. Fair enough if you're ordering multiple boxes of heavy nuts and bolts but if only wanting a single bolt then surely some flexibility and sticking the order in an envelope in the post would be desirable?

Then tried century fasteners www.centuryfasteners.ie but they didn't have any of the 3/8 UNF bolts in stock and recommended I try the dublin nut and bolt company www.dublinboltandnut.com. Rang them and although they had the bolts in stock they advised that their minimum order was €5 and that I'd have to collect in person as they didn't put orders in the post even though I was willing to pay for the postage. Since their hours and location didn't warrant taking time off work to collect I had to look abroad.

Didn't realise it was so difficult to purchase an imperial bolt in Ireland and given the inflexibility of specialised companies in Ireland it's no wonder people are purchasing abroad and spending money elsewhere.

Paddy McGinty

The majority of mowers have parts catalogues that will go right down to component level. If you post up the make/model of mower maybe someone might be able to locate a parts cat for it so you'll be one step ahead next time

Dr_Colossus

Paddy McGinty wrote: »

The majority of mowers have parts catalogues that will go right down to component level. If you post up the make/model of mower maybe someone might be able to locate a parts cat for it so you'll be one step ahead next time

I did find the manufactures parts catalogue online just to confirm that the bolt was in fact a standard 3/8" UNF bolt. I even had the old broken bolt with me when I was going around to the different DIY stores and repair centers and no one had any suggestions as to where I'd get it bar a specialty engineering place.