Defective Home Depot Bolts

[MOfj40]

Are the bolts you bought even hardened stamped or indexted (sp?)?

I think 3 hash marks on the head is a grade 5 and 6 hash marks are a grade 8. The last time I looked at bolts at HD I could not find any hash marks so they are going to be super soft.

I buy my stuff from fastenal. I buy in bags since I will need them anyway. I know the guys and they will sell me the one or 2 odd ball items when I need them instead of making me buy a bag of 6 or what ever the qty is.

You're right, when talking about non-stainless standard fasteners. No tick marks (or a single triangle mark) is grade 2 - very soft. A 1/2" grade 2 makes a good shear pin for a brush hog. You can easily twist the head off a 1/4" grade 2 with a small wrench.

3 ticks is grade 5 (grade 2 plus 3 marks). 6 ticks is grade 8. All that goes out the window when you switch to stainless or metric fasteners.

Also, bolts are held to tighter tensile tolerances and are designed for structural applications. Cap screws are held to tighter dimensional tolerances (hex head cap screws are what most people call bolts) but looser tensile tolerances. It doesn't make much difference for cruiser/handyman type projects though.