There are few things that are as universal as the knowledge among gearheads that quality hardware is perhaps the most important thing in any project. Companies like ARP provide the peace of mind that the right base stock is used, the right processes are employed and the nuts and bolts you are handling are the best in the business. We live in an age of insanely cheap hardware that is available at big box stores that give no cares about quality or how stuff is made. They want your money and they will sell you cheap junk to get it. This video shows a simpler and more awesome age when hardware was hardware and when people actually had some role in its creation and finalization.
Made more than 60 years ago there are a couple of cool elements of the film. The first thing that we think you will settle on is the killer machines banging out the screws at this factory. The second thing is the amount of actual human beings involved in the process of making the screws. They handle them, they inspect them, they actually box them up as well. All of those jobs have been replaced by machines that are designed to maximize volume and profit. Oh, there’s the other element of the process that is kind of awesome. The fact that the products are being made here in America and not some place where quality control is a term that has never existed and might never in the future.
We have all dealt with bolts and screws that seem to have been manufactured from puddy and not quality base materials. We have all dealt with stuff that has threads which are not true and not correct. We’d like a time machine to go back and buy 50lbs of screws from this factory.
Cool. The modern and Phillips head stuff must be swedged in the same process that forms the head in this video. Most threads are rolled now as well which is usually stronger.