Some Fastener Excitement

The most irritating part of refinishing the tub is the bolts for holding the feet on. What is irritating about it is that the original bolts have mysteriously disappeared. I know Noel helped me get them off, but where are they? No idea. Probably sitting on some shelf somewhere looking innocent. This is not heartbreaking because I needed to replace them, anyway, due to the amount of rust on them, but it's irritating because I need to buy new ones without the old ones as a reference.

So this is what the slots cast onto the bottom of the tub look like. The head of the bolt slides in there, then the foot is placed over the shaft. The trick is that the bolt should be designed for a t-slot; anything less won't hold the foot on with enough strength to stand up to the tub filled with water.

You can see the shaft of the bolt goes into the slot on this foot. You then tighten the nut and that holds the foot into place.

The process of finding the right bolts involved carefully measuring the size of the slots and how long the bolt needed to be, and then sorting through hardware catalogs for the right thing. I could have tried taking my measurements over to the hardware store but for really esoteric hardware I find they often aren't the right place.

So I placed an order for these today. We shall see whether I chose the right ones later this week.

posted by ayse on 05/17/21