You know that trick to get a nut/bolt started without crossing the threads ...

[luvtheheat]

I learned that trick way too late in life. In my 50's trying to assemble threaded irrigation parts into a backflow valve. Expensive way to learn....

 

[ER70S-2]

My favorite is when someone with zero to null mechanical competency is watching you and says "other way".

"I know..."

haha, yep. Go up and read post #16.

 

[cosmokenney]

I rebuilt my first lawn mower engine when I was five, so I suppose it had to be my Dad who taught me this stuff at an age so early I cannot remember.

Dad taught me all sorts of useful things, including how to ride a bicycle, treehouse engineering, etc. but the one thing he didn't care about and we didn't cover was sportsball. I think that worked out for the best anyway.


Dad taught my sister and I to read when we were four (my sister is two years younger than me, so she got even more of a head start on her letters by watching my lessons). We arrived at kindergarten (five years old in the US) reading comfortably at nearly a sixth grade level. Turns out, this REALLY gums up the works in schools. They're simply not equipped for such a thing as a wee tot who can actually read.

I was bored to literal tears, and got in trouble many times. I was forced to do many worksheets and exercises over because I got them done too quickly and accurately, and had to be "cheating" somehow.

Finally, I was "caught" and punished for sneaking in Popular Mechanics to hide in our basic letter books. The teacher was absolutely convinced that I was "pretending" to read and not paying attention to learning the basic letters. I asked her to bring me any book or magazine to show her I could read, but she refused to perform the experiment.

I didn't know the word "apocalyptic" yet, but let's just say Mom brought both the thunder and the lightning to the principal and teacher the next day, and they drank deep of fear... I was called in, handed a random magazine, and told to read a random paragraph aloud. After several repetitions, the teacher and principal had to agree that I could, indeed, read.

Some sort of compromise was reached where I could read more "advanced" stuff, as long as I could explain what I had read. And for some reason, I still had to do all the same worksheets and exercises as my classmates. Articles in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science soon surpassed the teacher's ability and interest, and I was mostly left alone for the rest of kindergarten.

Rinse and repeat for the next several years... I really feel sorry for kids who were a little different in any way and didn't have a grizzly bear for a Mom.

I am 57 y/o and lived through that type of schooling. I am an Asperger's. Dyslexic too. When I was in grade school I was deemed retarded and treated as such. Got into a lot of school yard fights. Yet somehow, despite my abhorrence of the education system, I ended up with a 35+ year career as software engineer. It was because I was seen as a pariah in my youth that I spent so much time in the garage by myself working on bikes and later in life, on cars and motorcycles. Still not sure what I like more. Working on them or driving/riding them.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

You can thank Mr Clinton Higbee for that. He patented the idea in 1891. It is known as the Higbee cut.

I learned about it in the fire academy.

As far as I know that only exists on fire hose fittings. Where they line up the thread start with one of the tabs and mark taht tab with the notch.

 

[Aaron_W]

As far as I know that only exists on fire hose fittings. Where they line up the thread start with one of the tabs and mark taht tab with the notch.

The Higbee cut is just one of several "blunt start threads", but he was the first to patent it. The notch is a Higbee indicator showing where the ends of the thread are.

Higbee created it for firehose, but the idea transferred to other uses.

 

[Bill Bowman]

This thread made a small light bulb go on in my head. Short backstory. Several years ago, my wife's sister passed away in Florida, leaving a severely handicapped son (David). My wife and I brought David into our home, to keep him from being in an institution. David was in his early 60's and functioned at about a 4 year old level. Didn't talk a lot, but was a loving "kid". I quickly noticed David doing the counter clockwise movement with bottle caps, such as Gator Aide, etc. His motor skills were very limited, however, he figured out how to get the bottle caps on without cross threading them, and did so on his own. He also made sure that all drawers were fully closed, and all lights off when leaving a room. Along with his special needs, he was Autistic.

David passed away this past April, but reading this thread, I couldn't help but realize that David, in his own precious mind, had figured out how to NOT cross thread a bottle cap.

 

[Kent_B]

I learned it in photography class in high school. 42mm threaded lenses on a Pentax SLR

 

[jaw22w]

I learned in the trades. Just like a wine cap! Put it on level and turn it to the right!

 

[MarcSeattle]

I don't remember where I learned to turn a nut or screw the other way to find where the thread starts. I do have a very vivid memory of Being a 12-year-old kid and breaking my first bolt by over-torquing it. Unfortunately, it was the front axle clamp bolt on a Yamaha. I did what the girl did in the video. It was upside down, and I just didn't think it through. Lesson learned.

 

[tool_scrounge]

My Dad taught me that trick when I was about 5 years old. He used to bring home large electro mechanical prototypes from Work for me to disassemble and build into other stuff.

Years later I mentioned to my folks how I thought taking apart old work stuff contributed to me being mechanically inclined. My parents replied that the take apart stuff was just to prevent another “kitchen incident”. I have no recollection of it, but apparently in my earlier youth I was left alone in the kitchen with tools and proceeded to take the appliances apart. My parent only problem with it was that I did not reassemble them.

 

[olytdi]

So, we all probably know the trick to start a nut or bolt without crossing the threads. I.e. turn it counter clockwise until it kind of clicks and you can feel it.
The other day I was thinking about this as I used the trick on one of those 16.9 OZ/500 mL bottles that I cannot seem to get to thread right unless I do that every single time -- otherwise they leak.

But it got me thinking: who taught me that? I really can't remember. I think it was one of my older brothers. Not sure, though.

How about you - who imparted this essential pearl of wisdom on you?

I don't know where it came into my knowledge but I thought most people knew this!

 

[Notgrownup]

Putting a fork cap on my Harley-Davidson to service the fluid is the hardest thread chasing/aligning task I have ever done. Patience….

 

[PoorUB]

I can say I pretty much never spin the nut the wrong way to feel it drop into the threads, I jut spin them on. If they don't spin on easily, then I might try spin the nut the wrong way to see if it drops into place, but the fair majority of the time I just spin 'em on.

 

[Fixr]

I was bored to literal tears, and got in trouble many times. I was forced to do many worksheets and exercises over because I got them done too quickly and accurately, and had to be "cheating" somehow.

Finally, I was "caught" and punished for sneaking in Popular Mechanics to hide in our basic letter books. The teacher was absolutely convinced that I was "pretending" to read and not paying attention to learning the basic letters. I asked her to bring me any book or magazine to show her I could read, but she refused to perform the experiment.

In 6th grade I got caught reading a dictionary after finishing the 20 minute reading assignment in about 5.

 

[no704]

Might have learned that building erector set stuff as a small child?

 

[ER70S-2]

I can say I pretty much never spin the nut the wrong way to feel it drop into the threads, I jut spin them on. If they don't spin on easily, then I might try spin the nut the wrong way to see if it drops into place, but the fair majority of the time I just spin 'em on.

I mainly do it when I'm reinstalling a screw into plastic or wood so I don't inadvertently cut a new set of threads.

 

[Jswain]

I only do that with my liquor bottle.

I didn't take you as a man who put the cap back on the bottle...

 

[firebirdparts]

Nobody had to teach me that.

 

[ATC]

I wouldn’t buy the giant channel locks for this, but since I already have them, they do occasionally get used as jar openers. There’s a brand of salsa that I buy that combines a large lid with some ridiculous level of sticky jar lid sealer that refuses to open any other way.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07LFJ6RV4?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Metal-Marc]

I bought a pipe wrench online specifically for some mayonnaise.

Yes. Mayonnaise on french fries.

 

[bassJAM]

I suspect we were all taught at such a young age with 2 liter soda bottles or something similar that we now think we are "self taught". I distinctly remember someone showing me this at like a 4th of July party or something similar when I was a kid.

I was just showing my daughters (age 5 and 8) this last week because they can't seem to figure out how to get their school water bottle caps on without cross threading them and then the bottles leak all over their back packs.

 

[bwringer]

Putting a fork cap on my Harley-Davidson to service the fluid is the hardest thread chasing/aligning task I have ever done. Patience….

Yeah, threaded fork caps are the worst of the worst, especially when you install upgraded springs. Installing these against the spring preload is a task that combines large forces with with the need for a delicate touch.

I have a cheapo no-name ratchet -- no idea at all where it came from -- that is the only one in my collection that allows me to apply massive downward pressure with one palm while turning. It's my secret weapon for forks. A metric thread file (IIRC Harley forks are metric inside) is also quite handy for checking and touching up the threads on the soft aluminum fork caps.

In 6th grade I got caught reading a dictionary after finishing the 20 minute reading assignment in about 5.

BLASPHEMER!!!! Who knows what might have happened if you had learned.... ADVANCED WORDS. Can't have kids going off-script.

I had a similar habit when I was a kid of reading encyclopedias (remember encyclopedias?) cover to cover out of sheer boredom. We had a set at home and I must have gone through them eight or nine times. A smartass know-it-all kid full of random facts and a massive vocabulary is pretty annoying, so you also have to learn the art of keeping a lid on that sort of thing.

We always lived way out in the middle of nowhere, but Mom and Dad once rented a house in town for a summer to cover the gap between selling one house and buying the next. We were only a few blocks from the library, and my sister and I pretty much lived there all summer.


I had a shop teacher in 7th and 8th grade who refused to believe a kid could read and write that fast, and often made me read and do assignments a second time. Looking back at that and other conflicts with that guy, it's clear he had a learning disability of his own, and could not stand it when a kid looked "smarter" than him for the pencil-and-paper parts of the classes. He mostly did fine with the other parts of the class; learning about tools, building projects, etc. (I hated woodworking then, and I still do.)

One semester, each of us had to find a broken lawn mower engine over the summer, then bring it in to disassemble and re-assemble, while doing a worksheet and writing a report. I had rebuilt my first lawn mower engine when I was five, so I could literally do this with my eyes closed.

I had my dead Briggs apart in a few minutes and was most of the way through the report in one class period. It was back together (sans exploded connecting rod) halfway through the next class, and he absolutely exploded with rage. Exactly how anyone could "cheat" at this task I never quite understood, but he made me disassemble it again to make sure all the parts were there, and in the correct place, and re-assemble the engine while he glared and huffed and fumed.


I know the OP didn't really mean to unlock all this educational trauma...


On an actual semi-related note, I've helped my nieces with assorted car repair and maintenance projects many times, and I was happy to see that their father has taught them the basics of using pliers, wrenches, ratchets, and other tools, as well as threading on nuts and bolts, etc. They're always happy to pitch in where they can and learn, and it can be a lot of fun. Plus, there have been a few times where it's much easier to send the flexible teenager into the trunk or under the dash than to contort my damaged skeleton...

No one's born knowing this stuff, so you have to be taught or figure it out through trial and error.

 

[M.Brane]

Yeah my dad would work on my sisters cars, but I was on my own though free to use the tools. It pissed me off a little back then, but now I understand.

 

[Fixr]

Yeah, threaded fork caps are the worst of the worst, especially when you install upgraded springs. Installing these against the spring preload is a task that combines large forces with with the need for a delicate touch.

I have a cheapo no-name ratchet -- no idea at all where it came from -- that is the only one in my collection that allows me to apply massive downward pressure with one palm while turning. It's my secret weapon for forks. A metric thread file (IIRC Harley forks are metric inside) is also quite handy for checking and touching up the threads on the soft aluminum fork caps.




BLASPHEMER!!!! Who knows what might have happened if you had learned.... ADVANCED WORDS. Can't have kids going off-script.

I had a similar habit when I was a kid of reading encyclopedias (remember encyclopedias?) cover to cover out of sheer boredom. We had a set at home and I must have gone through them eight or nine times. A smartass know-it-all kid full of random facts and a massive vocabulary is pretty annoying, so you also have to learn the art of keeping a lid on that sort of thing.

We always lived way out in the middle of nowhere, but Mom and Dad once rented a house in town for a summer to cover the gap between selling one house and buying the next. We were only a few blocks from the library, and my sister and I pretty much lived there all summer.


I had a shop teacher in 7th and 8th grade who refused to believe a kid could read and write that fast, and often made me read and do assignments a second time. Looking back at that and other conflicts with that guy, it's clear he had a learning disability of his own, and could not stand it when a kid looked "smarter" than him for the pencil-and-paper parts of the classes. He mostly did fine with the other parts of the class; learning about tools, building projects, etc. (I hated woodworking then, and I still do.)

One semester, each of us had to find a broken lawn mower engine over the summer, then bring it in to disassemble and re-assemble, while doing a worksheet and writing a report. I had rebuilt my first lawn mower engine when I was five, so I could literally do this with my eyes closed.

I had my dead Briggs apart in a few minutes and was most of the way through the report in one class period. It was back together (sans exploded connecting rod) halfway through the next class, and he absolutely exploded with rage. Exactly how anyone could "cheat" at this task I never quite understood, but he made me disassemble it again to make sure all the parts were there, and in the correct place, and re-assemble the engine while he glared and huffed and fumed.


I know the OP didn't really mean to unlock all this educational trauma...


On an actual semi-related note, I've helped my nieces with assorted car repair and maintenance projects many times, and I was happy to see that their father has taught them the basics of using pliers, wrenches, ratchets, and other tools, as well as threading on nuts and bolts, etc. They're always happy to pitch in where they can and learn, and it can be a lot of fun. Plus, there have been a few times where it's much easier to send the flexible teenager into the trunk or under the dash than to contort my damaged skeleton...

No one's born knowing this stuff, so you have to be taught or figure it out through trial and error.

The teacher who caught me with the dictionary was very cool, and suggested to my parents that I was doing poorly in class because I was terminally bored and my attention would wander off, and when it came back I'd have missed things.

 

[wolfhawk73]

Yes. Mayonnaise on french fries.

Yes. Quentin Tarantino taught the danger of snorting Heroin and the magic of mayo on french fries.

I'm pretty sure my dad taught me that trick.

But the other day I was assembling a new brush-cutter attachment for my Milwaukee power head. I couldn't get the shaft nut tightened to save my life. Played with it for 10 minutes or more and had to walk away a couple of times. The threads on the nut looked good (without my glasses), so I looked on Amazon for a replacement.

Left-hand thread. Durr.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I don't think I was ever taught to do it or was it explained to me. I don't always do it but as I read this thread and take a drink from a water bottle sitting here, I turned the cap backwards then forwards.

 

[Junkdrawer Dog]

The teacher who caught me with the dictionary was very cool, and suggested to my parents that I was doing poorly in class because I was terminally bored and my attention would wander off, and when it came back I'd have missed things.

When I was in grade school I did poorly in reading. This was frustrating to my Mom who was an elementary school teacher. She happened to notice that when we went to the grocery store, she would always find me at the magazine rack, reading. She asked what magazines I liked and followed up by getting me subscriptions to CYCLE, Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, etc.. I enjoyed them greatly and often had to refer to the dictionary to understand new words. She remarked to a friend, "I don't care what he reads, as long as he READS." It turned out that the school reading material was just boring to me. Flash forward to my freshman year at Purdue where I was required to take a mandatory developmental reading class. Within a few weeks I had exhausted the course materials and spent the rest of the semester running the projector equipment for the course instructor.

 

[metalmagpie]

A week or two into my year in first grade, the teacher called my mom into the room and scolded her for not letting the teacher know I could read. Mom replied that she didn't know that I could. Thereafter, I got sent to the library while the rest of the class was learning to read, which was fine by me. It was mostly downhill academically for me from that point forward. Almost without exception, school bored me out of my skull, and I hated that it was wasting my time when I could have been doing something that would have been infinitely more entertaining and/or educational.

None of that means I'm brilliant. I'm not, and I know my weaknesses very well. It just means I learn things very differently than was expected of me, and I wasn't cut out for the typical public school experience. I didn't start liking school until I was (allegedly) an adult, and I learned nearly nothing of lasting value throughout those childhood years of misery while confined in classrooms. I was taught little at home, too, so I learned how to figure stuff out on my own for the most part. Seems to have worked out well enough in the long run.

I learned to read when my mom taught my older sister to read. I stood behind the chair and paid attention. I was 3. The first real book I got all the way through was Christopher Robin. When I got to first grade, the teacher passed out reader books. While she was talking about them, I started reading. After a few minutes, she noticed (I was about halfway through the whole book) and she came over and asked me why I was pretending to read. I protested I did know how to read and she slapped me for my impertinence! Didn't stop me reading .. I still read about a book a day well over 60 years later.

metalmagpie