Originally Posted by
phil alvirez
buying nuts
but,wait a minute...buying nuts is no that easy. and as there are 2 ways (metric and standard) and how are displayed, is even more fun.
the way to measure the bolt where the nut has to be attached is by measuring the diameter-the round portion where the nut fits.
and in this case is 6mm. but the outside dimension (the hexagon, where the wrench fits to bolt or unbolt the nut) is 10mm (or very close to 3/8").
and for 8mm bolts diameter, the nut is 1/2" (which is not so close to 13mm). and the pitch is another factor.
and the way the labels on the shelves show the size are even more confusing. some show it on metric, others on standard.
so if possible bring the screw where the nut fits, to test the nuts and then buy.
anyway, that is the long story.
The following sizes are based on American National Standard which is very close to the ISO (metric) Standard sizes for nuts. Heavy-duty nuts are larger across the flats. Sizes of some nuts made in China could be anywhere.
Nuts are made to sizes which have manufacturing tolerances so common style M6 (mm) nuts could be from 10.0 mm (.394") to 9.78m (.385") across the flats with a thread pitch of 1.0 mm, and M8 (mm) nuts could be from 13.0 mm (.512") to 12.73 mm (.501") across flats with a thread pitch of 1.25 mm.
We can see that the nominal across flats inch size of the M8 (nut) at .512" is closer to 1/2" than the M6 nut which is .393" is to 3/8".
Flanged nuts are the same sizes. The diameter over the threads on screws varies with the class of screw thread.