I dislike certain sizes with a passion; 6-32 for example and 1/4-20. Those two I try to avoid. They strip, they shear off, more that other sizes in my experience. And industry uses them everywhere. Aack! 8-32 and 10-32 are fine. 1/4-28 I like too. Metrics are all good. I like fine threads in steel and coarse threads in aluminum. Did you know an 8-36 is nearly identical to a metric 4mm? Just a hair larger IIRC.
I don't have a good system for storage, so I try not to keep too many fasteners on hand. Life is too short to sort. You dig?
Mark S.
Yes, Mark, I dig(mostly in my parts bin). Not to be disagreeable but I kinda like 1/4 x 20. On small screws and nuts, I usually
locate the bolt I want and then look in the nuts bin for a "fitting" nut. If I want pairs or more of matching hardware, well, that takes
a little longer. On the small bolts and nuts, I'm sure it is a mix of imperial and metric. Sometimes a magnifying glass helps
on real small stuff or maybe even two pairs of 3.0 reading glasses for small parts or electronic circuit board soldering! It's
also handy to sharpen tiny drill bits or look at the cutting edge on end mills or lathe tooling when fine tuning an edge.
Yesterday, I was reefing on a bolt that holds on the front wheel on a riding lawn mower. It turned out to be 5/16 x 18
and left hand thread. Is was on the left side of the mower. How sinister is that? It's on an older mower. On something
new, the wheel is probably held on with a cheap springy washer like thing and covered up with a chrome plated plastic
pretty looking widgit. That's where the disdain comes in for me. What else is cheap on the machine? Probably everything!
One thing I don't like is when they make a casting and there is just bearly enough meat on the aluminum casting for the threads
making it almost impossible to thread the hole to the next bigger size...Now, that's disdain, probably metric to boot!
Most of the world is metric but we in the states get to enjoy a mix of metric and imperial and have to lug around TWO sets
of toolage cuz you never know what you might need! Gotta love Crescent wrenches and Vise Grips...