Appreciate this might get moved to Mech and Tech, but I've put it here as I think its pretty important. I've seen a couple of threads where the use of stainless steel nuts and bolts have been mentioned, and it reminded me of a trend in motorbike circles a few years ago where people were replacing all exposed nuts and bolts with stainless items (I didn't need to, I bought a Honda!) Can I advise caution on this - replacing high tensile steel nuts and bolts with stainless is a dangerous thing - stainless steel is simply not as strong and on fixings with major stresses, stainless will fail with disasterous consequences (I've seen a motorbike shear the main engine mount bolts). If you want the best of both worlds, use titanium (practical only if your surname is Ecclestone). I know that many of you are in the know on this - but some people aren't and on the face of it it looks a belting idea - just be cautious! Now...removes high viz vest, hardhat and toetectors...and resumes normal(!) service.
your right any load bearing parts should be mounted using the CORRECT GRADE steel fastners!!!! cosmetic fastners ie door hinge screws, dashboard mounts etc are fine with stainless steel. but lets not get into the whole nut and bolt can of worms as not everybody measures everybolt when they remove it to check if the bolt is in spec for deformation or replaces everybolt every time and retorques it to manafacture's spec with a recently calibrated torque wrench
Here's a good page on strength of Stainless bolts. http://www.volksbolts.com/faq/basics.htm Decent A2 bolts can be used in most applications. It's about the grade of the steel used. I use stainless engine mount bolts on my BMW R80 (and everywhere else, it's a fetish) but that's because the bolts are well over size. Stainless deforms more before failing. If youre using stainless into mild steel them use a dab of copper slip to prevent seizing. Cheers s
