All About Hot Dip Galvanized Fasteners Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today we're going to discuss hot dip galvanized fasteners.

So, I have here some hot dip galvanized fasteners. I also have some stainless-steel fasteners. I have some zinc fasteners and hot dipped to demonstrate to you what not to use and what are the correct fasteners to use with hot dip galvanized.

Hot dip galvanized fasteners are dipped in the molten protective coating and you're not to use a zinc or a stainless-steel nut on a hot dip galvanized bolt. I'm going to demonstrate that to you right now; what will happen.

Basically, you're going to see, this is a zinc nut. I'm putting it on to a zinc bolt and as you can see it freely goes on there with no issue. Okay, on the hot dip galvanized because the coating that they put on and the nut, I mean it's on the nut and on the bolt, is thick and what happens? It starts to gall up and you're only going to get so far and it's just going to jam up and that's what's happening now.

I can't turn that by hand any further than I've just put it on there. But if I take a hot dip galvanized nut, which that's what this is: a hot dip galvanized nut and hot dip galvanized hex cap screw and you can see it will freely go on to a hot dip galvanized bolt.

Now the threads are the same, okay, I think this is 3/8"-16. It's just on the nut that they make the threads (with) just a little more room so the nut can go on with no issue. You will not get a stainless-steel or zinc or plain(alloy) to go on all the way without totally stressing it out.

Okay so that's galling up now and by hand, that's the end. That's as far as I'll get. However, like I just showed you a minute ago, this is a different size. This is 5/8" diameter. If I take a hot dipped galvanized on a hot dipped galvanized fastener, you have no issue, spins right on.

The next thing you need to know about hot dip galvanize, it's an alternative. Hot dip galvanized is an alternative to stainless-steel fasteners. Stainless steel fasteners should be used with stainless-steel nuts and washers. Same thing with hot dipped galvanized. Same thing with zinc. You should use the similar products that they belong with. When I say to you that hot dip galvanized is an alternative, obviously stainless-steel costs a lot more money versus hot dipped galvanized.

Hot dip galvanized, all it is is an alloy steel that’s dipped in a hot malt of hot dip galvanizing protective (zinc) and that's basically it. It's very dull in color, the way it looks. The other thing you need to know when you're using hot dipped galvanized products you should be wearing gloves, eye protection. If you're using hot dipped galvanized (fasteners) and you're welding it or you're cutting it. Again, you should be using a mask to not inhale those fumes from hot dip galvanized products.

Those things are very important when you're handling these products in our warehouse. The guys need to wear gloves or some type of protection. If we're cutting it, we need to have some type of protection as far as a respirator or something along those lines.

That's my demonstration of this product.