Who Supplies BA Hex Head crews – Standard Head?

This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 1 November 2025 at 17:58 by old mart.

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30 October 2025 at 05:41 #822287
MEinThailand
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@meinthailand
Title Should Read: Who Supplies BA Hex Head Screws – Standard Head?

Does anyone know of a supplier of BA Hex Set screws with standard sized heads? All I can find is “head one size smaller”.

These I find – particularly in the smaller sizes e.g. 7 to 12 BA – are useless for one simple reason. There are no spanners available to fit!

Yes, I know the trick of using Cap Screw heads as box spanners and I have found 4 sizes to fit 6, 8, 10, 12 BA but these are for the standard head size, (Except that M3 Cap Screw fits one-size-smaller 10BA Hex Screw.)

It wouldn’t be so bad if there were any smaller spanners to fit the smaller head screws or even a tiny good quality adjustable spanner, but I haven’t been able to find any.

By the way I haven’t compare AF dimensions of these small head screws from different suppliers. I wonder if they are all similar.

Can anyone help please?
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30 October 2025 at 06:52 #822289
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
What could AI not come up with an answer😂😂

When I was using BA my go to supplier was EKP, first item listed under hex head is STANDARD size. Beware 8BA and one or two others are supplied as metric hex but the one or two thou difference should not be a problem this is because the BA hex is no longer made.

AS EKP make the fixings that many other ME suppliers sell you may as well go to source and can always ask them to confirm if they are still using BA hex, a good indication is to look at the sizes of hex material that they sell and se what they list as the BA hex material.

Small metric spanners are available to fit the metric hex or why not just go over to metric which is more likely to be available in your part of the world.
30 October 2025 at 07:41 #822294
James A
Participant
@jamesalford67616
I have used these people for BA fixings. The website is not the best, but the service was excellent.

https://www.ba-bolts.co.uk/

Regards,

James.
30 October 2025 at 09:34 #822316
Richard Simpson
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@richardsimpson88330
If you put “BA hex head screws” into Ebay UK you get a lot of returns, some ship internationally. I have used these guys a number of times in the past:

GWR Fasteners

I guess shipping cost is going to be a major consideration for you.
31 October 2025 at 01:10 #822402
MEinThailand
Participant
@meinthailand
Jason, many thanks for your response and comments. That EKP website is awesome, pity it says “Please note that we are unable to ship orders to Asia, USA or Canada.” Since I live in SE Asia, I can’t order. This is typical of many websites including eBay.

I’ll be checking out links given by other kind respondents later and I’ll even try an AI enquiry, just for completeness.

I’d be prepared to make my own BA fasteners, particularly in I can find the hex bar stock.

Maybe I should abandon BA completely and go over to metric. Depends what hex bar stock is available and I would need to spend time making up a BA Versus mm comparison Table first.

I much prefer stainless steel fasteners – another challenge for BA availability and another reason to make my own.

Again thank you for your help.
31 October 2025 at 06:44 #822407
SillyOldDuffer
Moderator
@sillyoldduffer
Might be wise to look for alternatives. BA threads were only ever common in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, the rest of the world was and is dominated by US and Metric fasteners.

Industrial use of BA declined after WW2, and the standard was declared obsolete by BSI in 1966. It was rarely used in new designs back then. Replaced by Metric.

BA is still available here because there’s a lot of legacy equipment about, but the need for replacements is gradually fading. Obsolete fasteners become harder and more expensive to buy. Unusual heads and partially threaded shanks disappear first. Eventually they have to be made to order. Availability is slowly becoming problematic here too. Worse in Thailand because BA was rare there, plus it’s hard to import stuff.

Given that BA is ‘difficult’, consider going metric! Especially in Thailand. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

Ordinary Western items can be impossible or very costly to buy in Thailand. A friend who emigrated there stocked up with British goods every time he visited family in the UK. I imagine Model Engineering tools and materials are difficult to find in Thailand because Thai’s have other interests.

Dave
31 October 2025 at 07:30 #822416
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
Ah I did not go as far as checking shipping. But as they make for several other suppliers and also sell the hex stock they were a good example of what hex you might end up with even when buying what is described as full size BA fixings these days. Maybe there is family in the UK who can slip a few packs of screws into a jiffy bag and forward to you.

Bruce Eng (Polly) do international, so may be another option https://www.polly-me.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=60_137

I seldom use screws or even bolts on a finished model as most of what I make would have had nuts and studs so don’t get through much in the way of hex screws though they can be easier during construction where things need to come apart several times. That is the advantage with metric, cap screws and ball ended hex drivers are readily available and so much quicker and less fiddly that hex heads.

The only downside to going metric is the mass produced hex heads and nuts that are pressed out can look oversize and out of place on a model particularly in the larger sizes with the writing on the heads. For that reason on final assembly I use small and tall fully machined nuts and the odd hex screw which are available for limited sources though lately I find I am making a lot of the fasteners that the current engines need as they are not available such a fillister head or square head.

This is who I get the steel metric stuff from, they also do stainless and list Thailand as a shipping destination

https://ghw-modellbau.de/GHW-1000-hex-model-nut-high-bare-stainless-steel-A2
31 October 2025 at 10:32 #822441
Michael Gilligan
Participant
@michaelgilligan61133
I don’t know if this helps at all, but DHL seems perfectly happy to ship to Thailand

… I’ve been checking regards nearby Laos

See: https://uk.express.dhl.com/

.

.

MichaelG.
1 November 2025 at 01:21 #822606
MEinThailand
Participant
@meinthailand
Yes, Michael, DHL are indeed my favourite when shipping to/from Thailand.

The main benefit when shipping to Thailand is that they deal 100% with customs clearance. With other carriers it can be problematic.

When sending from Thailand the process is dead easy. Just fill out the online form and within minutes, the parcel will be collected from my home by DHL.

DHL costs are reasonable-to-lowest.

Thank you for your comment.

PS are you in Laos, or have model engineering colleagues in Laos? If so I invite you to join our ModelEngineeringInThailand.com website announcement list and/or the ModelEngineeringInThailand.com forum.
1 November 2025 at 06:15 #822608
Michael Gilligan
Participant
@michaelgilligan61133
Thanks for the thought … but no, my son is a Jazz pianist and works around the area.

MichaelG.
1 November 2025 at 17:58 #822670
old mart
Participant
@oldmart
If you have difficulty with BA, you will find there are metric fasteners which are very close in size and so much easier to obtain along with minature spanners. If you are making models and have arotary table with a chuck that can be fitted, then making the head sizes of bolts and nuts slightly smaller is easy if the scale looks oversize.
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