Set of plastic standoffs for circuit boards, 300 pieces

Not too long ago, I was modifying an electronic load and rediscovered plastic fasteners—or, more specifically, plastic standoffs for mounting circuit boards. Of course, you can use them to mount more than just circuit boards, but in my case, circuit boards are what I run into most often.
So today I have a mini-review of a set of plastic M3-threaded standoffs.


First, a little about what made me decide to order this kind of hardware.

Some time ago, I was modifying my old electronic load, and it came with a few fasteners like these. Naturally, I used them during the rebuild. To be fair, before that I used to 3D-print female-female standoffs, but since I rarely use my printer, that’s extremely inconvenient. Besides, the quality of printed standoffs leaves a lot to be desired.

I’m wrapping up one of my long-running projects and plan to get back to reviewing DIY devices, so I thought standoffs like these would come in handy. I picked up a set for review. It seemed like the most versatile option, although I would have liked it to include more pieces.


At first glance, it looks like one big box when it arrives, but it’s actually two small boxes: one contains black fasteners, the other white ones. The sets differ in more than just color, though.


The set contents and quantities for each item are listed in the product description. I’ll check them later, of course.


The black set has 8 types, all neatly sorted into compartments in the box. Fortunately, nothing got mixed up, unlike in my review of ferrules for stranded wire.


I noticed something was off right away. It turned out that:
1. There were 72 nuts instead of 60.
2. There were 62 screws instead of 60.
3. There was also one extra large standoff: 11 instead of 10.


The white set has 10 types, not 8 like the black one.


Everything here matches the listing, except for one item: there are 22 nuts instead of 20.


The boxes are handy, but since each one is made from two halves joined together, I doubt they’ll last very long. Still, they should easily hold up until I’ve used all the standoffs.


The whole set.


Dimensions. All the fasteners have M3 threads; the height is given for the nuts.


If you sort the fasteners by color and size, you can see that the black set includes intermediate sizes of 8 and 12 mm that aren’t in the white set. But since the fasteners are plastic, I think you could always trim taller standoffs down to size with side cutters if needed.


All the “nuts” are 6 mm across. The screws are supposedly designed for a PH1 screwdriver, but that seems a bit small, while PH2 is a little too large. Either one will work, though.

1. The nuts are completely flat on one side and chamfered on the other.
2. The screws have standard heads, although I wouldn’t mind having a countersunk option as well.
3, 4. The standoffs come in two configurations: nut-screw and nut-nut. There’s no screw-screw version.
5. Probably the least useful fasteners in the set are the 20 mm screws, though that may just be me.
6. Only one of the fasteners had a defect: a bit of flash on one side of a standoff.



The standoffs have through-threads, so you can use longer screws if you want. Most of the fasteners screw together very easily, but some of the longer screws were a tight fit and took some effort to thread in.
Naturally, the black fasteners work with the white ones, and vice versa :)


And this is the first candidate for using these standoffs: the board for a powerful electronic load. I bought everything needed to build it a long time ago, but still haven’t gotten around to it.


Unfortunately, there’s a problem. The display is meant to be attached as part of a “sandwich,” but while you can join the two load boards this way, the display’s mounting holes would need to be drilled out. They’re designed for 2 mm fasteners :(


I’m not sure what else there is to say about something as simple as fasteners. Everything fits together without any problems: the screws fit the nuts, and the nuts fit the screws. The build quality is very good, everything is sorted into boxes, and it’s convenient to use.
One advantage is that the standoffs are insulating, though this can also be a drawback: sometimes a device’s ground wire is connected through the standoffs.
Unlike metal ones, they’re also easy to cut shorter, but they’re also more sensitive to heat. So, in a way, it’s a draw: they’re not a replacement for metal standoffs, but rather complement them.

Of course, I’d like a bigger set, and countersunk screws would be nice too, but this set is perfectly adequate for most applications as it is.

It’s hard to say whether the price is good, but I’ve seen 180-piece sets elsewhere for around three dollars, which works out a little more expensive overall. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough.
The price has gone up a little since then. The set originally cost $4.39, but there’s another decent set right there for just $2.79. It also has 300 pieces, but no long standoffs, and they’re all black - link.


That’s all. Hope you found it useful :)