I ordered some new-to-me Loctite thread locker to try out – 222MS – and it arrived busted.
The order was with RS Hughes, and I took the opportunity to order a resupply of disposable gloves. The Loctite was at the bottom of the shipping box, just floating around.
I’ve ordered Loctite threadlocker from McMaster Carr, MSC Direct, and maybe Zoro before. Zoro doesn’t do very well shipping adhesives or chemicals. RS Hughes beat MSC and McMaster on price.
Advertisement
I need a new go-to for things like this.
But not Amazon. I ordered a bottle of SuperLube from Amazon recently, and it arrived without a cap. I sent it back and placed a new order from Home Depot, which shipped it out direct from the manufacturer.
So… maybe I’m shopping for these things from McMaster and MSC exclusively.
Anyway, I recently ordered a new bottle of Loctite 242, and apparently they also have 243 which is the “new” formulation. When reading up on that, I saw that 222 (purple) is a lighter duty threadlocker, and 222MS is the mil-spec version that’s also said to be a little more resistant to contamination.
I went with 222MS over 222 because it was a little less expensive.
Reading online, Loctite 222 is supposed to be better than 242 and 243 (blue) threadlocker for smaller fasteners. I’m working with smaller set screws in a new project, and thought I’d try it out.
Advertisement
I called RS Hughes and asked for a refund. Nothing else seemed contaminated – I think some of the purple theadlocker fluid leaked out when I opened the cap to check the nozzle. The nozzle was intact but the seal was broken somewhere and it was a mess inside.
This is not my week for smooth shipping apparently.
RS Hughes’ customer service was great. They said they could get a replacement in 1-2 days (the original order took a day or two to process and about a week to ship), but I opted for a refund.
I get hung up on leaking bottles, and will order a replacement.
Where do you order supplies like this from?
Al-another-Al
McMaster will-call is a 15 minute drive for me. They pack the orders into shipping boxes and leave them on the shelf for a couple of days. If you don’t show up, they ship them out. Ground UPS shows up with a clean pristine box.
TomD
It’s so nice being near will-call for places like that.
My pet is Uline, even though their shipping is reasonable (they’ll send an 18 wheeler with lift gate to my door for $35), I like picking up in person.
MM
I buy that kind of stuff in person. Around my area there are many places which carry it. Fastener shops, MRO, hydraulic hose & gasket shops, etc. They all have a variety of the industrial Loctite variants.
I really hate sloppy packaging and it seems to become an even worse and worse problem. I’m honestly puzzled how it happens–do the people packing things honestly not realize that things get banged around during transit, or do they not care? Surely everybody has experienced the frustration at least once of receiving a package only to find the contents damaged due to lack of padding or the wrong materials used?
It even seems to be a recurring problem for products that are known to have that issue. I bought some Glucose syrup for baking from Amazon a few weeks ago. They packed the relatively small tub of syrup in much too large cardboard box with no void fill at all. Of course it bounced around in the box, split, and leaked. When I reported this to Amazon to get a refund I found that many other customers had the exact same problem with the exact same product. Surely someone would think: hey, we have a lot of returns and complaints on this particular issue, let’s make sure we pad this product extra well when we ship it? I’m sure there is pressure at Amazon to work as quickly as possible and to use as little dunnage as possible, but fact is that refunds & exchanges are more costly than a little padding.
Stuart
With Amazon, I learned something when they shipped me cans of juice that seemed to have been leaking before being boxed up. I think they aren’t paid enough to care, and they’d rather make things like that my problem than theirs.
I’m having an issue with Amazon now at the affiliate side of things. Nobody cares, they’re just robots who are seemingly graded on how fast things are “resolved” even if they’re not.
As a customer, I’ve gotten used to Amazon customer service agents lying to me in chat and over the phone just to be able to disconnect quicker.
Amazon no longer has pride in anything. No one cares. I’ve had a 17 year relationship with them as an affiliate, and longer than that as a customer. Nobody cares.
When I contact customer service as places like KC Tool, McMaster Carr, MSC, Zoro, RS Hughes, they seem to genuinely care.
I ordered socks from a company direct rather than Amazon. There was an issue, and I heard back from someone that cares.
I finally heard from a tool brand when they wanted me to promote their Prime Day deals. I had previously emailed them about a readers’ issue but never heard back. So I flat out told their rep no way, I won’t promote them.
Zoro shipped me a sensitive gauge in an unpadded plastic mailer. It arrived damaged. I called them, requested better packaging. The second arrived in the same unpadded bag and was damaged. I paid more from MSC and it arrived in a box with cushioning and was perfect.
Zoro ships me chemicals with super-sticky labels right off the directions and safety info. They send hand tools with super stick labels that peel and rip and need chemical removal. Their customer service is great, but I have to be deliberate about what I order from them.
McMaster Carr send me aluminum channels with gouges cut into them. They said they’d take it back, but that it’s to be expected since most customers process metal via various machinery. That was a while ago and I’ve had better luck ordering rod-shaped stock, and precision rods where surface finish is important.
A bottle of something from MSC arrived leaking. I think that was just bad luck. Things happen, I just don’t like it when it’s due to careless handling rather than bad luck.
TomD
This is exactly it. They get yelled at if they take half a second longer to bubble wrap a fragile item that’s not marked as such – they get NO kudos or rewards for preventing a return.
If it costs them ten cents to pack it right, and 5$ to refund/replace, and it blows up less than one in 50 times, they’ll always pick the “wrong” option.
Contrast this to the small press I buy from (the owner packs each book) – they all arrive individually wrapped and bubble wrapped in a box many times the size of the book. Secure. A bit more expensive. But each one arrives pristine even if the box doesn’t survive.
Steve
Do you mind sharing the name of the press?
Thanks.
MM
I am happy that I no longer do any business through Amazon. Back when I had my machining business we first sold some products directly via our own website and also via Ebay. Amazon contacted us inviting us to sell on their platform. Our response was that we’d like to, but right now we don’t really have the manpower to properly manage all the listings. No worries, the Amazon rep told us, they would take care of all that, helping to import the data from our site. They did do this, but as you said they seemed to be focused on getting the job checked off as done but the work itself was sloppy and full of obvious glaring mistakes. And then once we got all the problems sorted out new errors would randomly pop up even though we did not do anything to cause them. They must have bots (or idiots) going around fiddling with the database. Once Amazon decided to move a few of our products–suspension components for racing motorcycles–to the organic foods section and tagged them as “gluten free” and “strawberry flavor”. Another time it tagged a tool we manufactured as being “sized for 8-12 month olds”. The really annoying thing was the application information–what make and model the parts fit–was constantly getting changed without our knowledge or input. This resulted in problems of customers ordering the wrong parts when they trusted Amazon’s fitment information from the database instead of reading the product description. We had to have an employee frequently double-check and verify Amazon listings just to catch mistakes which Amazon created. We never had these issues with our in-house webstore or with Ebay.
It sounds like it’s only gotten worse. I am very glad not to have to deal with that. And speaking of which: USPS’s service has also been getting much worse in the last few years. Very often a package will be ‘out for delivery’ yet never arrives that day. Then some lie is entered into the tracking system to cover up the delay. Instead of simply and respectably admitting “we’re running late, sorry” the system will instead offer some nonsense excuse about how the road was blocked, a dangerous animal was present, severe weather… Shops very often get blamed for delays caused by the shipping company. I am quite glad that I am not having to field ever-increasing customer complaints about shipping problems beyond my control, especially not when they involve outright lies.
Stuart
I still shop at Amazon, and I will link to them, but with far less frequency.
Should that ever change, I have ways to remove 17 years worth of links.
Scott K
Yes- Amazon seems to be entirely focused on packing and shipping as quickly as possible. I don’t have any inside information, but it seems as though they are able to shift the burden when it comes to a refund to either the manufacturer or shipper and absolve themselves of most responsibility. There was once a time when books came shrink wrapped to a piece of cardboard so they didn’t get damaged in shipped.
I’ve had tons of great experiences with Target shipping- many liquids come with either an easily removable sticker over the lid or items individually bagged and zip tied to avoid leaks.
PB
In store. I buy as little a container as possible.
Threadlocker has a limited shelf life so you definitely want unopened and as new as possible.
It is best to throw it away after at most a year after being opened.
If you need to use some and the container isn’t freshly opened, use some the day before on a test screw. Just leave the screw on the table. If the threadlocker doesn’t cure overnight and it is still wet, get new threadlocker.
Fresh threadlocker will cure within an hour.
Alexk
Thanks for that information.
Stuart
Agreed. Lots of adhesives and chemicals have shelf lives. Sometimes I ignore it, such as with solder, and other times, such as with threadlocker, I buy regularly.
We had to wrap one of my kids’ workbooks in duct tape, and it was a horribly messy experience. I bought a new roll the other day at Home Depot.
Eric
Most threadlockers cure anaerobically when squeezed between the threads. It might dry out but that’s not a great indicator of whether it will work or not.
Torque Test Channel on Youtube found that expired threadlocker (Permatex brand blue, specifically) increased the amount of bolt stretch at a specific applied torque. A fresh tube didn’t impact the bolt stretch at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Y3aB94lwU&t=679s
EBT
I had bought a 10 pack of Waterloo black-cherry flavored seltzer. Put in kitchen cabinet drawer where I usually have cans of beverages. Forgot about them.
About six months later, I realize I have these and grab a can. Its empty! The aluminum is so thin, it just leaked out. No traces as it was not “sugary” beverage. Another found empty. Rest were barely full. And on opening, glad I was over a sink.
Yet, Walmart shipped me some bathroom items (shampoo, conditioners, mouthrinse) and all were in plastic bags with sealed openings. The shampoo had tape over the cap, as did the mouth rinse.
I guess its up to the supplier/shipper…