Flat head carriage bolts

[Steven66]

I'd never seen these until I got the Lee bench plate/benchblock system. Are they generally available in common sizes and lengths?

[rogerreloader]

They are called elevator bolts.

[frkelly74]

They are also used on garage doors. They are good for places where you do not want the head to hang up on a moving part. Lengths? I have only gotten them as hardware in a package for a specific application and have not seen them at the hardware store available in bulk.

[DonMountain]

They are real common on farm machinery also. Especially plows and wear facings on plow parts. So you might try a store that specializes in farm types of equipment like Orscheln or Tractor Supply, or any of the tractor dealers like Case/IH or Kabota or John Deere. Or maybe McMaster Carr?

[ReloaderFred]

A good place to start is zoro.com, which is owned by Grainger's, only cheaper. They also have free shipping on orders of $50.00 or more, and they're where I get my ground corn cob for my tumblers.

Here's the link for the elevator bolt, but they also have plow bolts listed: https://www.zoro.com/elevator-bolts/c/4926/

Hope this helps.

Fred

[backon4]

I’ve got a bunch of 1/4 inch ones I needed for a project. How many you need? I will send you a few.


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[Kenstone]

I'd never seen these until I got the Lee bench plate/benchblock system. Are they generally available in common sizes and lengths?

I a pinch you can chuck up a standard carriage bolt in a drill and file the head flat, or push it against an angle grinder...
just sayin'

[Mr_Sheesh]

If you don't get to $50 at Zoro Tools it's a flat $5 for shipping, and they have a LOT of good stuff, even huge gloves that fit me... Handy!

[lawdog941]

They are 1/4-20X1/4." I just upgraded to some from Home Depot or Lowes (the smallest I could find was 3/8"). They are the internal hex head cap head screws, uses an allen wrench so it doesn't strip out. Oops, thought you were talking about the benchplate system, sorry.

[Youngtimer]

Go on McMaster Carr website and find elevator bolts. Several variations available.

[jmorris]

They also are less than ideal is they strip out the broached hole that locates them. If I can get to the other side, I almost always use a countersink headed Allen bolt. Except for our plow, excavator, bucket blades, they are generally 1/2” or larger and I just cut them off with a torch when it’s that time.

[JeepHammer]

I with J.Morris,
I'm a farm kid and torch or power chisel was the way we took most off since the nut was almost always mangled...
They are dead soft, grade nothing, so the sheer pretty easily when it's time to remove them.
We buy them by the pound, dirt cheap, farm stores sell them as 'Carriage' or 'Stove' bolts.

One 'Trick' was to drill the head with a little divot so you had a starting point to start drilling when the time came to remove them.

I use them a lot when mounting to plywood or hardwood. Beats chasing washers or trying to get a wrench on the back side when building.
I came from the bottom up on a couple of presses, 1/4" bolts sticking up about an inch gave me a good place to hang my shell holders on for quick changes.

[Mr_Sheesh]

"Tee" nuts are a another neat trick for blind holes. Self-attaches to plywood or wood, stays there, I use these for holding presses down into wood (Metal is better but sometimes you have to cope with less than ideal situations.)

[Steven66]

Thank you all for the replies. Trying to figure out where to put my Lee bench block on my nice oak plywood loading bench. I'm going to mount the bench block on a piece of plywood that I can move around on the bench and clamp in different places to find the "sweet spot" as far as my personal ergonomics go. I could use either elevator bolts or tee nuts pulled down tight enough to be "countersunk" so they don't scratch up the polyurethane finish. The bench block mounting holes are 3/8", so that will be the size I get. Actually, I could just double up on the plywood and get almost any kind of bolt head below the surface to prevent scratching.

[JeepHammer]

People hate to cut into a bench top, but after over 40 years of busting hips & elbows on presses (and a lot of other shop equipment) I've started insetting the equipment back into the bench tops.

Other than the obvious, not busting hips & elbows, having things I'm moving smack into the press,
NOT having a press cantilevered over the edge of the bench top, keeping that press behind the legs makes the press rock solid.
No more rocking benches or benches slapping the wall!



Since the space may change for what I'm working on, I may have to move the bench, others won't have that issue. I try to keep everything within arms reach, having a space for about everything and not using general storage boxes where I have to dig things out when needed.

In this picture, the progressive press is the primary, an inexpensive & commonly available tool head press is handy for quick tools, bullet puller, universal decapping dies etc. are all 5 seconds away from use when I get suspect rounds.
No '***' rounds on the bench, either they pass QC or they get broken down for components while the same bullets, primers, powder & cases are on the bench.

All the QC equipment, case gauges, Datum line adapter, COAL gauges, etc. are right there, organized at your finger tips so you don't get behind or things don't pile up.
I use wood or brass rod made into pegs, brass doesn't eat into the case gauges, so things are handy and don't get knocked off the shelves.

Having a bench that doesn't wobble helps a ton!
People start with a solid press, but a solid bench is just as important in my experience, having those 'Front' legs out in front of the press sure helps with that...

[mattw]

We used the plow bolts on all of our IH plows, field cultivators and chisel plows growing up. They are usually also count sunk which really makes for a good solid connection to the mount. Dad always got hard surface or hardened bolts to prevent excess wear, most had good heads still when we had to replace the cutter, in fact the cutter would wear around the bolt and leave the bolt as a high spot on the cutter.

[mdi]

https://www.mcmaster.com/flat-head-bolts Large variety...

[Gewehr-Guy]

We must have used the cheap soft plow bolts, as they would wear to a thin sharp edge, and when you held it in the shovel with your thumb and it spun with the air wrench, it would slice you bad, or if it held,would get hot as hell and burn . Use gloves

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes, these were used to attach the Redwood planks to the top of my Flatbed Trailer. Didn't want anything sticking up poking at tires etc.

McMaster Carr.

Randy