Tool Presentation/Project Presentation. Nut and Bolt Thread Checker. Solve 1 Nut Buster Problem

Tool Presentation/Project Presentation. Nut and Bolt Thread Checkers come in a variety of forms, but the two primary are a

cable bound group of male and female gauge units

OR

a molded plastic or metal plate template gauge.

(there are different gauges for metal and wood and plastic screws that bore into material-hopefully with pilot holes.)

For our purposes I will be talking about

(the metal plate style can be found in most Home Improvement Centers: Hardware section)

Why you need a Nut and Bolt Thread Checker

Projects require fasteners or threaded components now and again.

As you can tell from my Miter Saw Workbench Post I love me some casters

Let’s say you have a steel Baker’s Rack and while moving to your new home, you loose one of it’s adjustable feet. You can take one of the remaining feet to the hardware store to use their Nut and Bolt Thread Checker, or stay home and use your own. Either way you may have to go to a specialty store website or amazon to find a replacement… OR, make one of your own.

We had an old IKEA metal bar that I had installed a 2X4 foot wide plywood project panel/sacrificial surface on.

I wanted to put locking casters on the bottom. The plastic feet were actually more skittery than regular caster wheels. Eventually it became the core of a 2X6 collapsible layout table project that I will chronicle soon.

We also have a Baker’s Rack that we repurposed into a rolling shelf unit for inside a thin pantry area in our rental home.

With these two projects it was easy to just gauge the size and thread of the caster’s bolts I needed to buy to get much better/broader use out of the shelvy/barish units.

Nut and Blot Thread Checker: Cable Bound

The 20 gauge multi stand cable is strung with plastic beads and most times for most of us we will have metric and imperial(SAE) standard bolt widths and threads per unit threads. SAE is the acronym for Society of Automotive Engineers which was the standard keeper in North America for the size and grade of fasteners and things like “horsepower.”

On each of the gauge units is scribed the bolt width and its threads per inch or centimeter.

For 1/4 inch bolts the UNC/UNified Coarse threads per inch are usually 20 or 28.

Here is a link to the product I myself own and you can see here measuring out the IKEA majesty.

In your hardware store there are usually standard nuts and bolts, and the more expensive Case Hardened variety. The case hardened will tighten down much harder without stripping the nut’s threads right out of them.

Nut and Bolt Thread Checker: Plate Style

These things have their merit to fit into a tool box and to carry in your jacket or truck at all times. I have seen them on sale for 2 for 5USD. They are good quick measurers and they have a molded thread matching thing, going on in the back. It is much easier to tell if you have the right bolt and nut with the other kind of gauge.

If you don’t have the cable bound style nor the metal plate with the bolts sticking out of it around. This one also works. If all else fails and you have to call to someone to bring you a quarter inch thick bolt… they can bring you the same number of both threads from the store and you can always return the ones you don’t use.