Tool & Hardware Dict

Look up the job you want to do, and get the tools and the steps for it. "Put up a shelf." "Stripped screw head." Search by the name of the job, the tools you need line up, and you can jump straight into how each one works.

■ Look up by the job (63 jobs, all free) Put up a shelf on a wall. Cut a board straight. A stripped screw that just spins. Clean a vent fan. Fit anti-topple brackets to a bookcase. Each one lists the tools and the steps, and 30 of them add "Where it goes wrong" — the one point that catches people out even when they follow the steps. Example: a TV must not be mounted to drywall alone. You need a stud, or anchors rated for the load.

■ Size charts (14 charts, 114 rows, every one sourced) This is the heart of the app. If a number is printed here, so is where it came from. Numbers we could not source are not in the app at all.

"#8" is not M8. A #8 wood screw is 4.17mm and M8 is 8.00mm — nearly double, and confusing the two is the most common mistake there is. Put a Phillips bit in a Pozidriv screw and it goes in, then cams out and chews the head. Four fine tick marks at 45° to the cross means PZ. The same "600" is not the same coarseness: CAMI 600 (16μm) matches FEPA P1000, not the FEPA grade with the matching number. A 3/16" hex key is 4.76mm, close enough to 4mm to round out a socket.

• Inch hex bolts across flats (ASME B18.2.1) • Inch hex keys for cap screws (ASME B18.3) — and why a set screw of the same size takes a smaller key • Screw drives compared: Phillips, Pozidriv, Torx, Robertson • US nail sizes (penny size) — why 10d common and 10d box are different thicknesses • Inch wood screw gauges (US gauge) with pilot holes for softwood and hardwood • Sandpaper grit conversion between CAMI and FEPA

The Japanese standards are here too, for when a Japanese tool or fastener is the thing in your hand: Phillips driver sizes (JIS B 4633), hex keys (JIS B 1176), wrench and socket flats (JIS B 1180), nails (JIS A 5508), pilot hole diameters and coarse-thread screw lengths.

■ Tool reference (90 tools, each illustrated) What it is for, the safety notes, how to choose one. All 12 power tools and all 9 cutting tools carry safety notes, with no exceptions. From a tool you can reach the charts that apply to it and the other tools in its category. Job → tool → size runs as one thread.

■ Nine languages English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese. Tool names are not translated literally. We use the name that works at the counter: diagonal cutters, not "nippers"; an adjustable wrench, not a "monkey wrench", which is a different tool. A try square and a carpenter's square stay two separate entries, because they are two separate tools.

■ One-time purchase. No ads. No network. The job lookup, how to use each tool, the safety notes, the size charts, search and favourites are all free. The one-time Pro unlock adds the "how to choose it / pro tips" notes on each tool. It is not a subscription. There are no ads. The app never connects to anything. All of the data ships inside the app, so it opens on a site with no signal.

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