Holiday Time

We wish you all a happy holiday and a merry new year!

See you in 2015.

Bags of Fun with Fasteners

One of our office buddies has a birthday today so this is her birthday gift...not a Christmas present (although it could be that too for someone else next week!)

Birthday Gift

(or Christmas Present)

They are reusable sandwich bags! 

Thanks to robots being so popular, nuts and bolt show up all over things now, which is awesome for us. There are 4 really sturdy ziploc bags basically, with the cutest design all over them.

Here is a close up of the two different bags. I really dig the bottom one.

Screwy Shoes

Gifts for Women!

YES! Those heels are nuts (and bolts!)

Mui Mui's Fall 2014 line of shoes are called The Nut & Bolt Shoes.

The photos are all from a fabulous & opinionated website called Tom and Lorenzo.com

They go over all the details of the shoes and more.

I'm not sure if they are in the stores yet but I imagine they are pricey...her shoes usually are.

I love nuts and bolts but I don't love high heels so this is one gift I don't actually want. But I bet my sisters would wear them.

Ok, this pair I'd wear.

Rainboots!!!! Those better be stainless steel.

Wallet Wrench

Gift for Cyclists!

This is a handy wrench for your wallet! 

This would be super for people who ride their bikes a lot, right?!

Buy it over at ScoutMob.com.

Pre-HEX-storic Beasts

Gifts for Kids!

These look like fantastic gifts for a clever kid who likes to make things.

From LTD Commodities, you can make a dinosaur, reptile or insect using nuts and bolts, and the price is really reasonable. 

Click HERE to buy one.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

One more year with this Turkey...thanks everyone for working hard and working with us, whether you enjoy the blog or you're buying fasteners, we're thankful.

I love Heavy Metal

Today we draw attention to the importance of metals. 

We found an article from a few years back written by Mark Nesbitt that points out the pros (and some cons) of a society that appreciates & even relies on the things we build out of metal. The first paragraph is awesome:

"The earth’s crust is rich with minerals and transforming these ores into – metal tools, machines and equipment of all sorts, motor vehicles, solar cells, wind turbines, computers, the internet, communications satellites and the rockets that put them in orbit, medical equipment and innumerable other products – allow us to live a quality of life much different from that of our parents and grandparents. Stop and think about it. Even the most basic things we take for granted, from the roads and highways we drive on to flat screen television panels, are products of mining. Society not only relies on, but demands it receives the manufactured products it wants and has become accustomed." (Click to read the whole article.)

SO TRUE!

Our lives would be so different without the people who know how to transform metals into things that make us happy & safe. So today we say thank you to those folks.

Thanks miners and manufacturers!

Robot Nutcracker

We're thankful for fun stuff. 

Look at this Robot Nutcracker - it cracks nuts with a screw device!

You can buy one at the Museum of Modern Art Store

Tool Bit Pen

We're so thankful for smart people making clever things. Check this tool out!

Tin Man Pumpkin Wins!

This pumpkin wins for Best Pumpkin with Fasteners!

Brought to you by the good people over at Celebrate Halloween.

Head over to the website and there is a tutorial on how to make your own Tin Man Pumpkin.

That is Awesome!

Festive Fasteners

Getting into the Halloween Spirit of things, and using fasteners to do it, seems more and more common these days. We found these over at The Swell Designer.com.

I like that they are not scary, they're just pretty. I would leave these out all year long.

You can learn to make your own over at her website.

Frankenstein, the Wind Chime

Over at Lowes you can learn to make this cute and perfect for Halloween wind chime:

Click this link and it will take you there.

Of course Frankenstein's Monster is one of our favorite characters, you know, since he's held together so obviously with nuts and bolts...just precious.

Make Your Own Pumpkin

Over at Jonathan Fong Style you can learn to turn this:

Into this!!!

Give us a call if you don't already have those 4 inch screws.

Glam Camping with Clamps

There really is a movement called Glam Camping. It's when you go to rough it but really the "rough" is more like soft.  So for those of you who take wine on your camping trips, and don't want to give up your beautiful glassware (really?), now here's this: The Wine Clamp!

These wine clamps are pretty funny to me because I can't imagine hauling a set of glass stemware to a camp site but I really do love clamps. I love that adjustable screw so I might buy one... I'll use it in my backyard though.

You can buy your own wine clamp by clicking the link below: 

Glam Camping Wine Clamp

Happy Clamping!

Wedding Clamps

There is a great article over at Design Milk on clamp rings designed by Lu-Wei Chen of Taiwan, from the Drilling Lab.

These rings are awesome! 

One of those screws looks like it's gold!

The screws in these clamps have a head on them instead of being countersunk.

Am I crazy for thinking they look sophisticated?

Combinding the tough metal with the soft metal is the perfect harmony. 

Awesome.

The article is awesome too. Be sure to go over to Design Milk and read all about them.

Great Rack

Someone is making coat racks out of clamps! The clamps don't actually move but they look great.

Buy your rack here!

Esty Clamp Coat Rack

Clamping Down on Books!

Thanks to Bob Vila's website you can hold your books upright with clamps.

These look like GREAT bookshelves - thanks Bob!

Bob also has an informative page that explains all the different types of clamps - Click here for CLAMP INFO.

Let's go Clamping!

I'm a  huge fan of the clamp. 
I get a huge kick out of seeing screws at work. Fasteners are generally hidden, but with clamps they are out in the open. And I like seeing them do their thing. Now check out these tables!

These tables were all made using The Floyd Leg.

Special legs that have clamps.

So you're able to create a table using these legs with almost anything that fits within the clamps.

And they look great!

That adjustable screw on display is so fantastic!

Buy The Floyd Legs here and make your own table.

200

This is our 200th post!

Hooray!!!

In honor of our 200th post we're posting lots of 200's, starting with some information about Nickel 200.

Have you heard of Nickel 200?

When something is made of Nickel 200 it means it is made of 99% pure commercial nickel. This alloy is highly electrically and thermally conductive. It is magnetic and very resistant to corrosion. And of course you can get fasteners made out of it. Nickel 200 is great for:

• Food processing equipment
• Marine and offshore engineering
• Salt production
• Caustic handling equipment
• Manufacture and handling of sodium hydroxide, particularly at temperatures above 300° F
• Reactors and vessels in which fluorine is generated and reacted with hydrocarbons

I personally have never been asked to quote Nickel 200 so I'm thinking it is not very common. If you've ever used it, let me know!

Next, we're posting a poster of what 200 calories of your favorite nuts look like. It's awesome and informative (like us!) and it's about nuts so we're sharing it. Found it at the DailyBurn.com.

Have you seen the Bicentennial Quarter? Also known as the Drummer Quarter, it was minted to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the US.

And LASTLY, check out how to hang a 200 lbs picture or mirror on the wall without a stud!

You actually don't need any fasteners for this one but we thought it was cool, although I have no idea if it actually works.

Anyways, Happy 200th to us!

Screwccessories...yah, it's a word

This is my friend Greg.

He makes really cool things. For example, he welded rings on to the gate behind him and put pots of succulents in them to make the coolest gate ever. That's the thing about Greg - everything he makes is cool. 

Like this cool table. He made it.

A few days ago I ran into him while he was working on this...

I saw him with a tool in one hand and a handy tool on the other!

Do you see what I see on his wrist?! 

He wears a velcro, dare I say, bracelet, that is magnetic and holds on to spare screws for him. That way he doesn't have to set them down or look for them when he needs them. 

How come I've never seen that before?! Greg is so clever... and well accessorized.

And that wall he was working on, here is the finished product...pretty cool.

Click here to check out Greg's Instagram page.

Must We Wave Good-bye?

Look how sad... this washer is bent...

I guess I have to throw it away, right?

WRONG!

Allow me to introduce the Wave Washer!

These washers are purposely shaped this way. 

The wave washer is a spring washer like Bellevilles, which look conical. Wave washers, all spring washers actually, are disks of metal that form an irregular shape, so that when the washer is loaded it acts like a spring and deflects, providing a preload between the two surfaces. Who invented this?!  Whoever came up with this idea is so clever. In fact, everytime I learn about fasteners I am reminded about how much potential we humans have. 

Although my very favorite washers are the Nord-lock washers - they're super smart! I'll do a post on those one day. Where the wave washer is simple, the Nord-lock is complex. But both equally brilliant!

Where can I get fasteners?!

Hahaha - they need a fastener, fast!

This funny photo can be found all over the internet but we got ours from Buzzfeed.com. They did an article on the Most Ironic Things That Have Ever Happened.

Stamping with Nuts & Bolts

Here's a fun thing to try...

Found a website called Picklebums that teaches a tutorial about 

printing with nuts & bolts, although I would call it stamping.

(All of the photos and info are from Picklebums.)

She has lots of these tutorials that show how to make easy art for kids.

You can use your old fasteners or grab one of something.

This little guy is doing a fabulous job!

Not a hex shape?!

Still not a hex shape?!

At least the drives show up.

So pretty!

I think this looks so messy and fun.

Thanks Picklebums!