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Spent a month using the wrong size anchor bolts on a warehouse job in Phoenix.
The foreman finally asked why I was drilling 3/4-inch holes for half-inch bolts. Anyone else ever have a moment like that where you just missed something obvious for way too long?
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anthonyhunt6mo ago
Man, how do you not notice the bolt is swimming in the hole? I used to think you just match the bolt to the drill bit size, but then I learned about clearance holes. That whole month, was there never a second where the bolt just looked... loose? It's crazy how your brain can lock onto one idea and just ignore everything else.
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robert_rodriguez666mo ago
Yeah but that's the thing, you don't want a tight fit for the bolt in the hole. That's the whole point of a clearance hole, it needs that wiggle room so the bolt can slide through and only the threads bite into the nut or the tapped hole. If it's tight, you'll never get things lined up right. The real trick is knowing the right drill size for the shank versus the threads.
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