EMT plate bolts...

[ssltech]

Hi everyone,

Having trouble finding replacement "eye-bolts" for tensioning the EMT plates... one has beoken and one is failing... (previous owners "doubled-up" on the tensioning clips, transferring the strain onto the bolts)

-They look like bolts where the head has been hammered flat, then a 1/8" hole drilled into it... Every search that I run for "eye-bolts" seems to turn up loop-headed bolts...much too big a hole, with very rounded corners... no good for this job...

I leave in a couple of days, so I need to get these quickly! -Anyone got any magic sources in California? -Or should I just pay a blacksmith to make some? -If I do, should the ends be case-hardened, through-hardened, or anything?

Thanks in Advance,

Keith

[PRR]

> head has been hammered flat, then a 1/8" hole drilled into it

They use bolts like that to hang suspended ceilings. Try a large building contractor supply shop.

[daif]

Through hardening makes the molecules clump...very brittle & snappable.
In this situation the bolt may require tempering as well!
Case hardening, as you probably are aware, makes only the surface hard.
Ideally steel bolts with flattened heads could be hardened & tempered or case hardened in a "flash" as the temp is up already for the head flattening process.
Heat!
Hammer!
Dunk!
Drill!
etc.
A typical engineer/blacksmith could "whack" these out for you in a flash.
Regards,
Tom.

[adrianh]

I saw a version of the EMT copy that used
chain (bycycle type or bigger) clamp that is used to
connect the chain back together and it solved their problem. The way they did it is foggy to me now but
look up chain (link) fixer and it will work.