I’ve started this category because I don’t think it’s necessary for each artist to have to discover all those things that will help them create whatever it is that they are working on.
I invite other artists to share things the techniques they have ‘discovered’. I know that in some sense, we are all ‘competitors’, but I feel we are also allies in the world of art. Your ‘vision’ can’t be copied!
I got tired of running to the hardware store every time I needed, say a 1 3/4″ bolt, or I had a need for a bolt that didn’t quite fit any of the possible choices. Because of the type of things I make, it doesn’t often matter what the diameter is.
From working with lamps, I have these lengths of 3/8″ threaded pipe (Avner tells me they are called ‘nipples’). I realized that I could use them, put the nuts on them, and cut them to the exact length of whatever I wanted to join. I use this to join metal and wood parts, but it could probably be used for other materials.
Klockit (http://www.klockit.com) sells these in 36″ lengths for less that $2.
Destructive Testing 
That’s a good idea.
These are sometimes called nipples too (I think mostly in the lamp world (which also has other sexually charged terms)). You can get a 36″ 3/8″ dia threaded pipe in http://www.grandbrass.com too. They are $1.75 each and 1.15 each if you buy 10 or more. (they are strangely called 1/8 IPS or 1/8 pipe for an old pipe size. The thread in any case is 3/8″ – 27)
Also – looking at your previous ‘making it’ entry I thought to myself – why does he cut the nipple? it takes so much time. I buy pre-cut sizes at the same website. For example – if you buy 10 or more you pay 5 cents for a 1″ pipe. I try to have several lengths in my shop and just use the size I need for the project.
Cheers.
I cut the ‘nipple’, at least on one end, because it’s easier for me, at least, to thread it through whatever I’m connecting if I have that extra length of pipe to grip with my pliers and thread it through. And most of the things I want to connect are not any standard length.
thanks, Mike