I'm looking to order 4 of those hexagonal shaft supports for a pcb board I have with 3mm holes for mounting. Anyone know what they are typically called so i can find them on the Newark website?
Jack screw is the name most often used in association with the threaded pieces on DB series plugs/sockets for serial/parallel/monitor connections.
They are the ones you screw the plug retaining knobs into.
A company called Keystone is one of the bigger names in this field, they will undoubtably have what you need. Newark stocks over 400 of their spacers. Use this link to get to the Newark selection table for spacers:
Does anyone know if soft rubber tube spacers exist? To be used with a machine screw and nuts for the core to hold a PCB while the rubber can compress vertically to absorb shock?
yes, that technology is generally classified as elastometric mounting... what you're looking for might be called rubber grommet or rubber spacer ... typically they're made from neoprene rubber, so they might be called neoprene grommets / spacers.
best place to find these will be computer "MOD" shops, and they're traditionally used for quieting down noisy fans and hard disk drives.
edit: might check under elastomeric as well ... I think elastomeric means the use of elastomers (like latex), either way, google has plenty of results
I would say go to a hardware store, and buy some small diameter rubber or latex tubing, and cut off some short sections, and then you can use them with a machine screw through the board, through the tubing section, and into whatever you want to mount it to. certainly a cheap solution, if it works for you.