kstrong wrote:I get all my small (00-90 through 2-56) screws, taps, etc. from Micro Fasteners. Very reasonable prices and good service. I think they advertise in GR, at least they used to.Later,K
What about metrics? Do you use many? I really can't see the point in laying in a small range of metrics, unless it'd be for repair of items, but even then....
Les
I'll second the vote for Micro Fasteners. You can get 100 pieces from them for the price of 10 at a local hardware store; and in many cases they have sizes that a local store doesn't carry.
http://www.microfasteners.com/
Tom Trigg
Toad,
I completely forgot about the metric sizes, probably the most pertinent to this hobby. They work basically the same way, though I am not familiar with them. Those, I'd have to go look up, too.
There are flat plastic (or even metal) stamped bolt/thread/tap drill/body drill gauges sold in better hardware places. The list is rather lengthy or I'd type it out. I'll try scanning one and see how that works out.
Body diameters range from 00-90, which is watchmaker's size, or approximately the diameter of the screw in your glasses earpiece. They go up: 00, 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. 10 comes in two thread pitches (number of threads/inch) 10-24, (very common) and 10-32 (not quite so common but still common). So do the others, point of fact, but some are getting rather rare. (I left out the gunmaker's dia & thread, which would be an asset in this hobby as there are more threads/inch than the standard sizes. This gives more 'bite' or holding power per unit of length than a standard-pitch screw of the same body diameter.) I left out a slew larger than 10, starting with 1/4".
I'm relatively positive this info is available online if you Google 'thread pitch' or something along those lines. Probably downloadable.
Drill bits have three standards: Number, wire gauge, and fraction. Numbers are 1 thru 60, and 60-80, these last being very tiny. Fractional-inch: 1/16" thru 1/2" by 64ths (can be gotten in complete sets for ~$30 - $40. (There are many other sizes above 1/2", not important here.) Then there is the Letter series, A-Z (though I think 'J' is omitted). These are rarely used outside industry.
The best thing for the average modeller, in my opinion, is to buy only the tap, body drill, die and thread drill combination needed at the moment. Gun parts and suppliers sell these in small sets for a remarkably reasonable sum, or you can pick 'em up from a jobber's supply.
You need two sizes of drills for any standard diameter of screw: the body size, which gives a clearance hole, and the 'tap size', which gives a hole smaller, so you can run a tap in and cut the threads. With the same diameter of rod, you need a die.
Then last, there are dies, used to cut threads on pieces of round stock of the proper diameter. These are numbered exactly like the taps.
I won't even go into pipe dies and taps, which have a mild taper. I have never deduced the logic in any relationship between actual dimensions of the pipes, and the threads and dies dims.
A little Googling should bring all this info up. If not, let me know and I'll figure out some way to copy and send the charts.
Give use some useful bolts and nuts sizes and where did you buy them from?
Drill bits for them?
What else can you think of that would make this thread YOUR thread and others!? To help others also.
Toad - tryn to make good threads
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