I've seen several dry cell designs that use nuts and bolts to hold the dry cell together. Some had the bolts on the outside, away from the metal plates, while others have the bolts going through the plates.

I'm trying to build my dry cell with the bolts going through the plates, to not waste space. But the problem I'm seeing is that if I use metal bolts then the bolt will touch all the metal plates and complete the circuit.

Have any of you guys built the dry cell with the bolts going through the plates? and if so, how did you do it? Did you use nylon bolts? or coat the metal bolts with something? Or is there another space conserving way that is better?