There are certainly more dishonest ways of making a buck in this day and age
Might as well, especially if there is enough demand
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I wouldn’t take advantage, just make it worth my while.
However these screws really are difficult to find. Turns out there are 3 suppliers in town, two of them with online catalogues barely have any metric screws at all. These really are hard to find.
I’d like to ask for a quote from the first supplier I listed, but I’m not too confident they’ll have all of these.
Good luck convincing others of that, I wouldn’t call myself a regular seller but I’ve sold sufficient quantities of items of eBay that I know the price markup to justify listing will strike some as excessive, it helps that you would be selling a low-value item so the markup would only need to be a dollar or two to cover listing fees and it would be low volume enough that you could just buy the screws as orders come in.
For me, I don’t see it taking advantage to charge an extra few bucks profit (maybe $5 plus shipping?) since you would be providing convenience to users, nothing is stopping me from finding a local store as you said
I do doubt there is much demand tho and if there is, Framework would likely step in and sell direct from the market place as there isn’t really a way for you to advertise this on the forum without breaking rules and as a mod, that would look bad for you lol
Good point. I think this will be decided for me since it looks likely that I won’t be able to find these screws.
eBay has increased their fees so much I only make a few dollars on anything priced $15 or lower.
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A quick eBay search turned up a couple sources of M1.6 1.5mm screws… Nylok. I haven’t found any steel or even brass.
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It’s challenging for us to make these available too. The logistics and economics of selling small bags of different fasteners is really rough…
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I’d assumed as much - I figured if selling them was viable you’d already be doing it… Honestly I suspect the most practical approach would be for a number of us to go in on a group purchase, but even that would only be cost-effective if we lived close enough to avoid lots of little shipments. And could find a supplier.
If only we could 3D-print them…
This is not the advice of an engineer, try this half-assed solution at your own peril: M1.6x2 hex head screws, M2 washers at 0.3mm thick will bring us to 5mm width and pretty close to thread depth. Sandpaper/angle grinder if I bottom out the threads. My searches on Aliexpress were pretty abysmal. There’s this site, but I have no idea if they’ll do volume discounts.
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Good finds, @iaredavid. I’ve continued looking and haven’t come up with anything yet… For my needs I can just make the screw holes accommodate a longer screw; getting the correct screw diameter is more important.
Since the most likely use for the screws is rehousing a board, perhaps the mainboards available through the marketplace should just ship with the required screws.
Does anybody have a source for the screws that Frame.work uses/specs? They don’t sell them. They claim they are available at any hardware store. I cannot find them locally or online.
- I tried boltandnutsupply.com (mentioned here Has anyone found a source for screws?) without success.
- I contacted IFixIt, and they replied “Unfortunately, we don’t carry that product.”
For their specs, see: Fasteners Guide - Framework Guides.
Where does Frame.work get them? Thanks.
Which screws, the 4 case screws or internal? You know there is a few spare inside the case itself right?
They’ll have their own made to order, probably. All in all, you’re probably best off going to your local hardware nut and make it their puzzle to solve. That being said, they could probably make the screw for you by modifying something they have in stock, if you ask extra nicely, maybe.
As far as I am aware, FW have no intention of selling extra screws. It is not my place to comment on why, as it is beyond my realm of knowledge, so be careful with what you have, is all I can say, confidently.
Best Regards,
Varg
To be upgrade and repair friendly, it seems odd to use screws like these. I looked on eBay and AliExpress for the screws spec’d. There are some close matches (phillips-head screws with smaller head diameters) which might work for the M2 screws. I did not find anything like the M1.6 1.5mm fastener with a 5.5mm diameter head.
Yeah, it’s kinda strange they don’t sell the screws outright.
I asked about it and got responses like “shipping would be expensive” and “you have spare screws on the case” which are valid but only if there was a third party screw vendor which these weird ones don’t seem to have or are not findable.
Hopefully Framework sees this cause I’m clumsy and lose my screws often! 
Other topics echo this one; spec’d fasteners are almost impossible to find/source. I’m considering using glue instead. See: The 5 Best Multipurpose Glue for Electronics (2022 Review) - NerdyTechy
Just look towards the top of the post and you’ll have your answer
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Hello,
I am trying to create the “Framework NUC” using my old Intel Gen 11 mainboard. Already bought an SSD and memory for it. I need the following fasteners:
*** 1. 5x Mainboard fasteners - M1.6 1.5mm fastener with a 5.5mm diameter T5 head**
*** 2. 3x Audio Board and WiFi card fasteners - M2 3.0mm fastener with a 4.5mm diameter T5**
In case anyone is curious, the fastener guide has the specifications for all the fasteners used in the full Framework laptop:
I already printed the case files from this link: Mainboard/Mechanical/Printable Case at main · FrameworkComputer/Mainboard · GitHub
I had to order prints from a 3D printing service, since I don’t have a 3D Printer available.
Does anyone know where I can buy the fasteners I need? Any help would be appreciated.
I recently bought some screws from aliexpress for my resin 3d printer (I wanted stainless steel torx for the vat) which arrived 2 days ago. It was about $20 for a big bag of the sizes I needed including delivery, and it only took a bit over a month to arrive.
These look like a decent substitution, maybe the best easily available screw. You can cut them to length with a dremel.
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I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s a good suggestion! Just make sure you’re not trimming them too close to the mainboard, you don’t want to get metal fillings distributed across it…
It’s also worth repeating for anyone searching for these for personal projects: the shaft diameter is the most critical dimension, to ensure they fit through the mainboard. If you’re building your own case you can cut the screws to length, as @Moe_Wigs suggested, or just plan the mount to accommodate whatever screws you find; no need to go spare trying to find a custom length if you don’t need it.