[Milsurplus] Slide snap fasteners

[Ken Kinderman]

We all have been up against the problem of finding those pesky little
mounting plates for control boxes etc. (MT-80, MT-95/ARC-5, etc.), with
studs on them to mate with the slide snaps on the boxes. Probably all got
left in the aircraft as they went to the scrap heap. If you could find a way
to replicate, or substitute for, the kind of fancy small-radius metal
bending found on the originals, it would be possible to fabricate
good-enough plates. Of course, a 3/16 bolt through a plate works too.

Question: Does anyone have a source for the studs and/or the slide
fasteners?

I found a source, but had a most unpleasant experience trying to deal with
them. Briefly: I contacted their sales guy and offered to buy a reasonable
quantity on behalf of the Yankee Air Museum DC-3 restoration I am helping
with. I even offered to pay a premium for a small-quantity purchase. Well,
after 6 months of trying, I got no response on the phone, just one
half-hearted e-mail from him promising to send me their line-card, then he
stopped responding. They have a wire overstock list on their website (they
fabricate harnesses), so I sent them some wire samples of stuff we are
seeking. Never got the line card, never got the wire samples back, never got
answers to letters, e-mails, or phone calls. I wrote a letter to the
president saying hey please, this is a volunteer project, we just need your
help and we are willing to pay, and we'll be happy to say good things about
your company somewhere in the acknowledgments. Not a peep out of them. Very
short-sighted of them to be so high and mighty. The company is called Astro
Industries, near Dayton.

Solutions, ideas, anyone?

Ken,
W2EWL