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Used to be, most of the time I'd walk into the local big box store looking for hardware, I had pockets full of nuts and bolts jangling around making it sound like I'd just thrown back the saloon doors and stepped up to the bar in my jinglejanglejingle spurs. Then I'd spend the next half hour in that aisle comparing thread pitches and bolt lengths before scouring the bins to find that the stockboy just tossed everything in willy-nilly without regard to its actual size. While there's nothing I can do to solve the latter situation, the former I decided to remedy with a pair of SAE and metric thread checkers.
As I've dived deeper into the nuts and bolts of the Chenowth EV project, I could have purchased one of those thread checker sets that look like a bunch of teeth strung on a witch doctor's necklace that a lot of shops have hanging around. They certainly seem capable of doing the job, and they're fairly easy to find. But while I was shopping around, the Ortus Enterprises Check-A-Thread caught my eye for a few reasons.
First, it's pretty eye-catching. And by that I mean I can see at a glance all the 15 metric and 21 SAE sizes included in the set in high-contrast print without having to turn over and examine a series of threaded pieces. This makes checking the thread sizes much quicker. The big splashes of color also make it easier to grab the right set the first time, though more experienced mechanics used to the blue/metric, red/SAE color scheme may find themselves getting tripped up.
Second, it's just as simple to use as the more traditional sets - perhaps easier because you only need one hand to do so - and it includes built-in rulers for bolt length. Again, nothing that couldn't be done with a separate ruler mounted by the thread checker set, but an all-in-one package makes it more convenient.
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Re: I Love This Tool: Ortus Enterprises Check-A-Thread
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