I wish that manufactures would indicate what threads are use in their products. Many times a nut or bolt is lost and trying to find a match can be a pain in the ass getting the right one. I even have some tools that have both. Also fine and coarse. not to mention Withworth threads.
Most machine manuals list screw sizes, thank God. I lost a screw that vibrated out of the head lock on my planer once. Found the manual, went to the hardware store and I was back in business in short order. Then, of course I found the original screw on the floor immediately after I put the new one in.
All the hardware stores have those nuts and bolts identifiers so if you have a broken piece of it, at least you can identify what it is and buy a replacement. A little tougher when you don’t have any spares to bring or a manual that identifies the size.
Then there is the matter of big box and other stores selling dowels that fall to the metric side in a country where metric Forstners and such just aren’t readily available.
Matching hardware to all of the possible "holes" a person comes across in a lifetime is a huge PIA. Especially if you add in old hand tools, and even a lot of powered stuff.
History had, and passed by many pitches, threads, and whatnot that one can hardly find a match for. At least none at a very well stocked hardware, and ridiculously hard now that you have to do most of it online, and can no longer bring the item to be matched with you into the "store"
My most recent search finally had me handing the part over to a Tool and Die guy I know, and he made me hardware, Perfect fit, but if I had to pay for it, would get pretty spendy, pretty fast.
I'm talking about the really oddball stuff that doesn't fit any of those pretty standard sizes. I have a similar assortment. I think Stanley may have been the worst offender of really oddball sizing. threads, pitches, and all. The fact they were making stuff in different countries sure didn't help.
