thwart bolts

[garyh]

Have redone my original thwart and made a new one to add a little strength- unfortunately had to grind old bolts off and having hard time finding replacements. Originals (2 each side) had carriage bolt type head (but with flush flat bottom, carriage bolts I see have a nut kind of piece on bottom of head), was 3/16 by 2 1/2, threaded the last inch and were steel, which were in good shape, other than the threads, considering the age.
Question- where could I source such a thing? All I can get close to here is 1/4, and that would involve drilling out holes bigger which puts me closer to end of thwart and edge of inwale, which I would like to avoid. And if I had the option of brass would it be as strong as steel? I do carry a fair bit by original oak thwart, canoe weighs about 65lbs. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Gary

 

[Dan Miller]

I would replace them with 10-24 (3/16") bronze carriage bolts. The hex prevents the bolt from turning while tightening the nut. You are probably not going to find an exact replacement for a different style carriage bolt, except perhaps at a hardware store that's been around for a long, long time.

10-24 bronze carriage bolts are stocked by a lot of the builder-suppliers listed in the WCHA Builders and Suppliers Directory at http://www.wcha.org/buildsupply/ (I think I've even got a box of them somewhere...)

Brass will not be nearly as strong as steel (or bronze), especially the garbage being made these days. That being said Old Town's diamond head bolts are brass with a root diameter of 3/16" and they hold up just fine. However, the threaded portion of these bolts is a greater diameter than the root, unlike bolts with cut threads where the root diameter is smaller, and thus weaker.