Mounting prototype circuit boards to steel chassis

Plastic standoffs are available in various lengths, or you can use nylon
machine screws and nuts, available at most hardware stores (look in the
specialty hardware drawers, not the pre-packaged stuff). Plastic
standoffs are pretty common from most any electronics catalog retailer
like All Electronics.

-- Gordon


Adam wrote:

I haven't used "real" standoffs for years, since I started using those
expanding sleeves for putting screws in concrete. The ones I'm talking
about are just an extruded tube with ridges running lengthwise on the
inside and outside. They should be available in different diameters and
can be cut to length easily. Usable either with a long screw going all
the way through, or two short screws in either end. Not every hardware
store may have the same style of expansion sleeves though.

Just "make" stand offs, by using longer screws, and bolts between the
PCB, and the chassis.

Like this

[=] -<- Screw head
-||---------------- <- PCV
 =  <- bolt
 =  <-bolt
-||------- <- Chassis
 ||

A screw goes into material without a nut. A bolt goes through a hole and
is fastened by using a nut. A nut threads onto a bolt.

So the same object is a "screw" or a "bolt" depending on whether you put it
in a tapped hole or put a nut on it?

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Technically "bolts" are fasteners that conform to a certain sizing
standard, but these days most manufacturers follow a size threshhold for
calling things bolts or screws (assuming a nut is attached to either
one). Bolts under maybe 1/4" are referred to as machine screws. I guess
it seems a little silly to call some miniature 2-56 threaded fastener a
"bolt." It's a bolt to a flea, I guess.

You would use a "bolt" to attach the valve cover onto the block of your
car engine; the block is threaded and doesn't use nuts, per se, yet it's
still a bolt. I don't think a self-threading fastener would ever be
called a bolt. I've always seen them referred to as screws.

-- Gordon

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:38:20 -0500, "J. Clarke"


Probably not statndard terminology, but I call something a "screw" if
you install it with a screwdriver and a "bolt" if you install it with
a wrench.

Except an all wrench (hex key) counts as a screwdriver.

George

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:36:48 GMT, George Weinberg


What's a nut?

JM

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:29:03 -0600, John Mianowski


Well, it's threaded on the inside, that's for sure. But I'm really not
sure how to phrase the definition to properly distinguish between
a nut and some threaded metal block. A nut only has one threaded hole,
through the center, but if you were to drill a hole through the center
of a manhole cover and tap it with a 6-32 tap I'd doubt if anyone
would call that a nut.  

George

I don't understand it either, but that's what I've been told.

I've also been told that a "drill" is what normal people call
a "drill bit" and the machine that rotates the drill is called
a "hand drill" or a "drill press" or a "drilling machine".

Jargon is strange sometimes.
--
D. jay Newman
http://enerd.ws/robots/

I think I'll go with this idea, because the idea of easy variable
lengths really appeals to me.  Thanks, everyone, for your input.  I
appreciate it.

- Adam