When HN users recommended it
1 HN user recommended this in 2024, in one comment.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
1 HN user recommended this in 2024, in one comment.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
An app would have trouble with that since it doesn't have an absolute size reference. By the time you put the screw atop a calibrated reference background tool, you'd be faster to just read the markings on the tool yourself. (If someone wanted to make an app that uses an object of precisely known size, say, a credit card, as a reference, and then calculate from there, yes I'd be all ears! But I've never heard of such a thing.)
BoltDepot has some fantastic pages (and printable reference posters) that explain how fasteners are measured and described: https://boltdepot.com/Fastener-Information/Fastener-Basics
Once you've got the terminology, it's pretty straightforward to take the measurements. Thread diameter is easy to do with a $2 plastic vernier caliper (I use mine constantly), or fit into the holes in any screw checker. https://www.amazon.com/Stainlesstown-Bolt-Thread-Gauge-Blue/...
Thread pitch is best done with a thread gauge, which is a fold-out affair sort of like a feeler gauge. I've got an inch/metric combo one like this: https://www.amazon.com/ChgImposs-Imperial-Whitworth-Industri...
And then length is easy to do with the ruler on the side of the screw checker, or the calipers themselves. (Use the jaws for the overall length of a flush-type screw, the step-shoulder part for the length of a cap screw.)
There are also combo gauges, I'm intrigued by this type and I should pick one up to see how I like it: https://www.amazon.com/WEN-ME210G-Imperial-Multi-Gauge-Carry...