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paulz
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# Posted: 31 Jul 2025 06:17pm
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Gone through a few small boxes of these locally, expensive. Time to get a big box. Amazon has another maker for a bit less. Same thing?
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travellerw
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# Posted: 31 Jul 2025 11:13pm
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My vote is no.. not the same.. While they look the same, the main difference between "structural" and regular fasteners is the heat treating. Structural fasteners remain ductile and are able to bend much more before snapping.
Unless the off brand has some kind of certification, I would doubt the heat treating is the same as the Simpson brand.
Further.. A deep google search of VTCGAM seems to bring up Vision Turning Component company of India. While they make fasteners they say nothing about structural.
In short... I don't think its worth the $10 risk!
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Brettny
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 05:26am
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There the same part number..so there the same screw.
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DRP
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 05:31am - Edited by: DRP
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Ditto, for engineered structural components look for an ICC approval, usually an "ESR" number (engineering services report) Then you can look up the report to see how to use the product properly and what the allowable loads, etc are.
The old steel from the 50's at work is 36,000 lbs tensile strength, modern beams and pipe are 50,000 psi. That screw is made from over 100,000 psi tensile strength steel and as travellerw pointed out, it fails ductile rather than brittle (like a drywall screw or a screw made from an old 36ksi Carnival cruise ship)
I did break the simpson screw in the pic below but it took a 3/8 logging chain pulling a 2 story house back to vertical. The other screws and nail were just done with a hammer claw. The nail wins the ductility test hands down tho.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 08:12am
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Thanks guys. I’m not putting up beams or anything, just use them for simple projects that may come back apart later, super handy for that.
Also might get these 10 inchers, good for going through a thick redwood branch.
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 10:44am
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If you are using them for small projects, then why "Structural" fasteners? Why not just galvanized lag bolts? WAY cheaper and sufficient for anything not being inspected.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 11:22am - Edited by: paulz
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Hmm, well the local Ace hardware just has these on a dedicated shelf. The regular screws and nails are down below in tubs but no hex head screws I’ve seen. Example?
Oops you’re right, they have lag screws but bigger. I’ll take a better look
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2025 06:50pm
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I ordered the VTCGams, still have a few of the Simpsons to compare. Also getting the 10” pack. Test results next week. I looked at the regular lags, not much price dif.
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spencerin
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# Posted: 3 Aug 2025 11:07pm
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I bet they're the same. Provided they're being honest, the VTGAM description states they're structural, premium- galvanized, high-strength.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2025 08:32am
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Arriving today. Test board at the ready.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 5 Aug 2025 11:02am
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Tested the new VCTG screws. Screwed in no sweat. Hammer whack bending broke the one at the threads, other no problem. About like the Simpsons, which have a marking cast into the top. These are blank.
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DRP
Member
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# Posted: 5 Aug 2025 10:11pm - Edited by: DRP
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My Simpson fasteners are at work but I wandered down to the shop and broke some, uhh, stuff.
The top fastener was a no name gutter screw, it broke at the threads, or anywhere else with not much pressure, I bent all these by hand in a vise.
The second was a SIPs panel screw. It broke at the threads but was ductile in the shank, where the "work" is supposed to happen.
The 3rd is, I believe, an Oly screw, olympic fasteners, a leftover log home screw, with an ESR. The real deal, I've used many thousands of these, we used to travel with 2 thousand under the seat for spares and the suppliers would send several thousand with the house.. Here's the ESR;
https://cdn-v2.icc-es.org/wp-content/uploads/report-directory/ESR-1078.pdf
Before these were common we built log homes with 3/8 lag screws. At A36, 36.000 psi tensile. We would snap lots of these. The hardened fasteners were smaller diameter and triple the tensile strength, we would strip those out in the wood long before they would part...; one of those diameter, depth of penetration, specific gravity, tensile strength equations. It can be a deep subject. We would carry 3/8 lags for more pull down but also aware that they would snap easier.
Basically a building is members that are held apart by critical connections. We size the beams but tend to ignore the connections, yet, the connections are the most common failure point. If nothing else, remember that! We want strong ductile failure, a building should distort visibly and howl before failure. If there is a brittle failure... snap whump, you Eff'ed up bigtime. Do not assume, when it matters, look for that ESR that says it is good steel and the real deal.
My wife was trying to get 2 logs screwed together "dollar bill tight" on one job. That company had sent lefties and righties, logs with both left hand twist and right hand twist, we never built for those dummies again. I was cutting with the 16" skil saw, a fair amount of noise, and heard what sounded like an automatic weapon. She had five 3/8 lags in tight spacing trying to pull the logs together, working them a little each at a time. One broke and it zippered, 5 lags broke in rapid succession, brrp!
LOL, I was just informed I'm on county fair setup tomorrow 
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DRP
Member
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# Posted: 6 Aug 2025 02:16pm
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This was in today's email, kinda timely. It has a link at the end to their fastener selection app which is kind of cool.
https://24212225.hs-sites.com/corrosion-resistance-what-you-need-to-know?
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 6 Aug 2025 06:38pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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Quoting: DRP ...company had sent lefties and righties, logs with both left hand twist and right hand twist
The sawyer at the mill that took our standing dead, heat killed by the wildfire said lefties should be left to rot. He had a smile/grin on his face but I think he was half way serious.
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DRP
Member
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# Posted: 6 Aug 2025 07:49pm
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That is an old logger's saying and I don't completely disagree. Although, twisted wood of whatever type makes for twisted lumber. Left seems to be worse often and it is twisting the opposite direction of most things. With however many species of wood, there is every exception. Black gum spins one direction for a few years, then reverses, then reverses, etc. Old white oak will often spiral left. I often make 1" boards out of questionable wood, so it ends up as sheathing, siding, trim, form boards, whatever but not as lumber. At a point spiral grain starts dropping the lumber grade as the grain runout gets more severe.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 30 Aug 2025 05:44pm - Edited by: paulz
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The plywood front wall of my firewood box had warped out badly due to overstuffing it over the years, to the point of a 3” rain gap in the middle. So yesterday i screwed a 2x4 across using the new VCTG screws. No muss no fuss. Ive used them in several other minor things, super handy compared to screwdriver heads. Theyll take the torque of burying the head in the work until the hex drive slips without breaking if you dare.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 30 Aug 2025 10:42pm
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Timberlok, Ledgerlock, Headlock, all made by fastenmasters, these replace lag bolts. You can not cut them with a hacksaw. I built my entire log shelter using these. The headlock with spider drive is a neat unit, some have a hex head with washer (headlok), some are pan head with torx, some with spider drive (headlok) . I have loads of them at the cabin from 6, 8, 10 and 12" in length. Love them.
FastenMaster
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