Why are there so many Hex Bolts in Toolbox?

The question that was asked the other day was “Why are there so many Hex Bolts in the Inch Standard of Toolbox and where doe the information come from.

The answer to this is simply because there are many different standards, to go into a little more detail we need to look at where SOLIDWORKS gets their information from and where we can find out more about the different sizes in SolidWorks.

To answer the question of where does SOLIDWORKS get their information from the answer is the Machinist Handbook. SOLIDWORKS does not put every last nut, screw, bolt, bearing, washer, etc… into the Toolbox but they do put the most commonly used hardware into the Toolbox.

To answer the question of where to find more information on the sizes of the fasteners you can do this by either looking it up in the Machinist Handbook or if you do not have one you can simply look at it through SOLIDWORKS by going to Tools, Options and from System Options select Hole Wizard/Toolbox.

If you look at the 2 examples below you can see the differences between a regular and heavy Hex Bolt. Besides the difference in the size of the head the heavy starts at ½” vs. the ¼” of the standard, there are also differences in length that can be viewed.

Remember if there is something that you want to see added to the Toolbox, log into the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal, through the SW website (www.solidworks.com) and submit an enhancement request. You can also make changes to your Toolbox by copying a standard and adding or subtracting the different features, sizes, and lengths.

Thanks,

Josh Altergott
CATI Support Team Leader