I have been selling nuts, bolts and fasteners for almost 30 years.  For the most part our fasteners are 1/4-20 through 1-8 coarse thread fasteners so matching thread is usually pretty straightforward.  However, from time to time a customer comes in with a fine thread or maybe a metric that I will have to order in for them and the guessing game starts.  I had a plastic gauge that you could match the thread up with but it wasn’t always easy to get the correct match.  Plus if you had a nut, there wasn’t a way to match up the threads.  Recently I had a customer come in with a bolt that I wasn’t sure if it was metric or fine thread.  So finally after almost 30 years, I decided to do this the easy way.  I ordered a thread finder set from Amazon.  And what do you know, I used it 3 times in the first week or two!  It now hangs on my showroom wall and it not only makes my job easier but helps me take better care of my customers.

There are several thread size finder for nuts bolts and screws available on Amazon.  I chose one that has both standard and metric thread.  The one I chose has a male and a female end so finding thread size on either a bolt or nut is super easy.  The set has both metric and standard threads and are clearly marked.  The gauges are all strung together on a cable with a loop on either making it easy to hang on your wall for easy access.  They are also available in a few different sizes so if you typically using just smaller bolts and screws the 26 piece set would do well but they also offer a 34 piece set as well as a 44 piece set.   The standard are in a chrome finish and the metric is in a black finish.

I can justify the price of a thread size gauge with one word, time.  And I am not just talking about the ability to get correct thread size in a few seconds.  Consider a real life example.  You are mounting a mounting a television and you need longer screws to screw into the back of your tv.  So you take a guess, drive to the hardware and grab a few screws.  Ooops, close but not right, they must be metric.  Back you go and try again.  You get the idea.  No consider you may have to order the screws online.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get the right one the first time?  In my opinion having the gauge finder is money well spent.

Now that we have the correct thread count, here is how to get the correct length of a screw or bolt.  The length of hex bolts and screws as well as pan head and roundhead bolts and screws are measured from underneath the head.  Counters sunk (flathead screws) are measured from the top of the screw.  So with the the help of your thread finding gauge and knowing how to correctly measure length, you can order up the correct screw first try!