Almost a good tool

[wierdscience]

Was going to buy a few of these thread checkers for the guys at work, then I noticed the thread selection offered. 1-12 for the 1" NF selection when it should be 14 , 7/8 apparently doesn't exist and the metric set doesn't include 18mm.

https://www.mcmaster.com/20375A14/

https://www.mcmaster.com/20375A17/

I can buy them and make the missing gauges, but what a shame.

[Fasttrack]

Was going to buy a few of these thread checkers for the guys at work, then I noticed the thread selection offered. 1-12 for the 1" NF selection when it should be 14 , 7/8 apparently doesn't exist and the metric set doesn't include 18mm.

https://www.mcmaster.com/20375A14/

https://www.mcmaster.com/20375A17/

I can buy them and make the missing gauges, but what a shame.

1" UNF is 12 TPI so it looks right to me ?? I'm not surprised 7/8 is missing. Seems to be waning in popularity in the same way 7/16 is becoming somewhat unusual.

Ah! Interesting. Wikipedia may not be the best research tool, but there was an illuminating footnote on the thread table. Apparently 1-14 is more widely available and is commonly referred to as UNF, even though it's not actually the standardized version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Thread_Standard

[The Metal Butcher]

1" UNF is 12 TPI so it looks right to me ?? I'm not surprised 7/8 is missing. Seems to be waning in popularity in the same way 7/16 is becoming somewhat unusual.

Ah! Interesting. Wikipedia may not be the best research tool, but there was an illuminating footnote on the thread table. Apparently 1-14 is more widely available and is commonly referred to as UNF, even though it's not actually the standardized version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Thread_Standard

I believe 14 used to be the NF thread, but got changed to 12. I've definitely seen older taps marked as such.

[Mike Burch]

My ancient thread sizes wall chart, which I suspect came out of the Ark's engine room, lists 1" x 12 as UNF and 1" x 14 as UNS.

[old mart]

Why not buy them a micrometer each and some thread gauges, if they know how to use measuring tools.

[wierdscience]

1" UNF is 12 TPI so it looks right to me ?? I'm not surprised 7/8 is missing. Seems to be waning in popularity in the same way 7/16 is becoming somewhat unusual.

Ah! Interesting. Wikipedia may not be the best research tool, but there was an illuminating footnote on the thread table. Apparently 1-14 is more widely available and is commonly referred to as UNF, even though it's not actually the standardized version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Thread_Standard

That's the problem, 1-12" is actually the odd duck, 14 is the common "standard" and has been for awhile. We sell tons of 7/8 stuff, quite common in flanges and valves. The M18 everyone claims to be odd, but apparently nobody told John Deere, Komatsu and AGCO, lots of threads on field and construction equipment are M18 thread. That one is easy to confuse with 3/4-10.

[wierdscience]

Why not buy them a micrometer each and some thread gauges, if they know how to use measuring tools.

These guys aren't machinists, just inventory and customer service clerks. They just need a quick method for determining what a customer has brought in and cross check what is going out.

[epicfail48]

Why not buy them a micrometer each and some thread gauges, if they know how to use measuring tools.

Same reason go/nogo gauges exist; sometimes you just need to quickly identify something

[754]

Cheap pitch guages and vernier, or digital calipers will make them look smart..

[Fasttrack]

That's the problem, 1-12" is actually the odd duck, 14 is the common "standard" and has been for awhile. We sell tons of 7/8 stuff, quite common in flanges and valves. The M18 everyone claims to be odd, but apparently nobody told John Deere, Komatsu and AGCO, lots of threads on field and construction equipment are M18 thread. That one is easy to confuse with 3/4-10.

Yeah, I definitely run into M18 a lot but 7/8 is a bit of an odd duck in my industry. Although, now that you mention it, I think the only time I've run across it "in the wild" was on a real-time jet fuel monitoring rig designed to go into an aircraft carrier. All the flanges had 7/8" bolts!

Anyway, looks like these gauges were designed by some fresh engineer sitting behind a desk. If someone told me to make a set of gauges, I'd probably whip out my machinery's handbook and just blindly follow the UNC / UNF pitches. And I'd probably tell my boss I don't work in metric so he'd better just find someone else to design that one

[tom_d]

Yeah, I definitely run into M18 a lot but 7/8 is a bit of an odd duck in my industry. Although, now that you mention it, I think the only time I've run across it "in the wild" was on a real-time jet fuel monitoring rig designed to go into an aircraft carrier. All the flanges had 7/8" bolts!

Anyway, looks like these gauges were designed by some fresh engineer sitting behind a desk. If someone told me to make a set of gauges, I'd probably whip out my machinery's handbook and just blindly follow the UNC / UNF pitches. And I'd probably tell my boss I don't work in metric so he'd better just find someone else to design that one

Yeah. Looks like the gauges were made by running down the Unified thread size list and picking the ones from the Course and Fine series only, without paying homage to the popularity of any specific size. 1-14 may be the more common compared to 1-12, but it's still officially listed as a Special thread size, and the boss didn't say nothing to me about my being Special.
I would have though an outfit like McMaster would offer individual thread size gauges in a wider range, but I only see UNC, UNF, and Metric listed.

[wierdscience]

Yeah. Looks like the gauges were made by running down the Unified thread size list and picking the ones from the Course and Fine series only, without paying homage to the popularity of any specific size. 1-14 may be the more common compared to 1-12, but it's still officially listed as a Special thread size, and the boss didn't say nothing to me about my being Special.
I would have though an outfit like McMaster would offer individual thread size gauges in a wider range, but I only see UNC, UNF, and Metric listed.

The world is a bit slim on decent thread gauges. These are the best I have seen, just too bad they picked the odd selection of sizes. That would be a good idea though, selling individual sizes and letting people build their own set to suit their needs.

[Doozer]

I recently needed a 5/16-20 set screw for a tool I was fixing
and felt pretty good being able to use an M8 x 1.25 set screw
in it's place. Perfect enough to work.

-Doozer

[RB211]

We all have at least one thread cutting lathe in this forum, just sayin...

[wierdscience]

We all have at least one thread cutting lathe in this forum, just sayin...

I know, I know, I just hate having to make or modify every single thing, after 30 years it does get old.