Harry Krause wrote in message ...
basskisser wrote:

"Eisboch" wrote in message ...
This is such an easy answer, I can't believe nobody has answered correctly.


You use a coarse thread bolt when the only nuts you have that match are
coarse thread.
You use fine thread bolts when the only nuts you have are fine thread.

You give up and head for the hardware store when one is metric and one is
standard and they are the only ones that will work for your project.


Eisboch (yeesh.... why is this so difficult?)

Pretty much correct, except, even with a quite large bolt and nut bin,
I usually get tired of hunting after a few seconds, and head for the
hardware store anyway! One day, I hope to need a bolt, and actually
find the right one in my bucket!


When I was a lad, Connecticut was blessed with thousands of factories
turning out all sorts of goods, and, as a result, there were huge supply
distributors all around the state. West of my father's main store on the
Boston PostRoad was an industrial supplier called Roberts, Crozier and
Ballou, and they had every fastener known to mankind in virtually every
materials. Stainles, bronze, brass, iron, steel, galvanized, whatever.
They had it all. It was a wonderful place to visit. Equally
wonderful...the Western Electric Manufactuing facility about a mile from
my dad's store. If the guards knew you, they'd allow you to dumpster
dive. Many of my junior high and high school science projects began in a
Western Electric trash bin!

My uncle was an aviation machinist, and where we lived, he ended up
working as the head mechanic at a local Westinghouse factory that made
lightbulbs. The machines that were there were quite complex, with
many, many parts and pieces. Our garage was full of that stuff, nuts
and bolts in english and metric, long before most people in the U.S.
knew what metric was.