What's a Washer Worth?

Just a quick job….

One of the kitchen cupboard door handles parted company with its fastening. On inspection the handle was fixed by a flanged machine screw which had sheared off, luckily without blocking the threaded hole in the handle. Not having a thread gauge or any other way to identify the bolt, whether imperial, metric or otherwise, I turned to a micrometer which I had bought a while ago on a 'that could be useful' impulse. A bit of twiddling and a consultation with Wikipedia identified it as an M4 x 30mm; one screw and one washer required. With no suitable replacement lurking in the toolbox I set forth for B&Q at the next available opportunity. So far so good.

On arriving in the fastenings section of the local store I found myself in front of a Perspex panel into which had been sunk one of everything so that you could check the required size against the actually items. I say, 'had been' and 'could', as two-thirds of the items had been pried out/fallen off. Nevermind, I knew what I needed and found a bag of 10 nuts, bolts and washers…. for £4! I couldn't face the rip-off and beat a retreat.

Fortunately the next day took us past the Screwfix counter where for the princely sum of £1.81 I purchased 25 screws and 100 washers.

Forty-five seconds with a screwdriver and JOB DONE.