Hand tools, drivers and fasteners

Hand tools and the fasteners they turn: selection, cleaning and storage, and identifying a bolt or a screw by size, thread pitch and grade marking before it is replaced.

Common failure modes

• Tools put away wet, which corrodes them
• A driver that nearly fits, which rounds the head
• A fastener replaced with one of a lower grade
• A handle that has loosened and was used anyway
• A thread pitch assumed rather than measured

Procedures

• How do I know which wall plug or drywall anchor will actually hold what I want to hang?Every wall anchor on the shelf has a number on the package, and that number is almost never the answer to the question y
• How to clean and store hand tools so they don't go rustyRust on a hand tool is almost never a failure of the tool. It is water, left on bare steel, in a space that spends half
• How do I crimp a wire connector so it does not come loose, and how do I test a crimpA crimped terminal is the standard way to attach a ring, spade or butt connector to a 12 V wire, for a car audio install
• How do I work out what size bolt this is, and what do the lines on the head mean?Four things have to match before a replacement bolt is the right bolt: diameter, thread pitch, length, and grade. The fi
• Tell a metric hex key or socket from an imperial one before it rounds the fastenerA hex key or hex socket is sized by the flat-to-flat width of its tip, and that width comes from two unrelated systems:

Where this stops

Repair of a damaged tool is usually not economic, and a page will say so. A torque value is always taken from the equipment documentation, never from this site.