Thread plug gauges are interesting little devices in any industrial toolbox. It is highly recommended that if you work in an industrial setting, and part of your job is testing the threads and thread tolerances on various components, that you have your own toolbox filled with different thread gauges. You can get what you need from any place that offers this or that thread plug gauge for sale. In the meantime, it helps to know what the basic functions of thread plug gauges are, and why you need more than one.

Thread Plug Gauges: Go and No Go

In seemingly military speak, the "go, no go" phrase applies to the dual-ended thread gauges. These gauges are useful if you have lots of threaded components that need testing via insertion and non-insertion of the gauges. The "go" end is threaded such that you can screw it right into the component that needs testing and get a reading that way. The "no-go" end does not insert into the component but rather touches the inner lip or cups the end connection of the component being tested.

For these reasons, you should get several dual-ended gauges of various sizes. Each different size tests a threaded component of matching size. The dual-ended gauges also cut down on the clutter in your work toolbox, creating more room, which is quite convenient.

Measuring the Pitch Diameter and Major Diameter

Have you ever found a few loose screws and wondered what they were for? Did you wonder if they could be used to secure something other than what the screws were originally meant to secure? Sometimes industrial work is like that. You find a loose screw, bolt, or socket, and you have no idea if it will work in or on something that you are working on. 

That is where the thread plug gauges come in. They measure the pitch diameter and the major diameter of the threaded item you found. The pitch diameter measures the angle of the threads on or in the loose object, while the major diameter measures the highest thread point of a male screw thread and the lowest thread point of a female screw thread. All of these measurements will then tell you A) what kind or what type of fastener you have, and B) exactly what you can and cannot use this loose fastener for. Then you can either put it back in a sorting bucket in the factory or use it as you had intended.

Contact a company like WEST port for more information and assistance.