You remember those days when a couple of nuts and bolts would keep your kitchen table from wobbling around like jelly on a plate. “Measure twice, cut once,” was always my grandpa’s words of wisdom. For him, accuracy was king. And when you’re dealing with projects that need everything to fit together like peanut butter and jelly, thread gages are your best friends.

Thread gages aren’t some sort of mystic contraptions out of the Mad Hatter’s workshop. Nay, these are good ol’, simple implements that make sure whatever you are trying to fasten holds like the grip of a toddler on his favorite toy. Suppose you have a fresh batch of screws from the hardware store; with thread gages, they’ll fit to a tee and save one from turning what should have been a two-hour job into an all-day fiasco.

Okay, put yourself on a fastener safari, taming bolts and screws of every size. Thread gages would be like your guide, ruling out all the guesswork, making sure things fit, eliminating mismatches in general.

Just think of how invaluable they are, being about as indispensable as that first cup of coffee on a Monday morning. Whereas bolts have different pitches, like the various dialects of that loved grandparents’ chatter, thread gages would translate them into some sort of universal language. That means you don’t spend hours trying to figure out serves of scrambled pieces of metal when what you needed was a nut-and-bolt chat.

Consider this: over at Walker Industries, Dave once had a running joke. He said, “You know your day is going well when the coffee is strong and your thread gages agree that all your bolts are singing the same tune.” True to Dave’s wisdom, getting it right on the first try with the right gages often feels like singing in the rain after a long drought. Your connections are seamless, without struggle or strain.