Installation Instructions
Installation Instructions
(OP)
Background:
I am wriing an Installation Manual for a Sheet Metal Cabinet, hanging from a utility pole.
The section for mounting to a wooden pole currently states:
Materials Required:
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 Machine Bolts
Two 5/8” Flat Washers (Zinc Plated)
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 Hex Nuts
My question is this, I want to put the metric values in the manual as well, this is going to be primarily used in Canada. Any suggestions on the best way to do it, should I inclued the metric and inch values on each line, should I have seperate sections for the two, should I only use one or the other???
First install manual and I am not sure which is the best way to go. Thanks in advance for input.
I am wriing an Installation Manual for a Sheet Metal Cabinet, hanging from a utility pole.
The section for mounting to a wooden pole currently states:
Materials Required:
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 Machine Bolts
Two 5/8” Flat Washers (Zinc Plated)
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 Hex Nuts
My question is this, I want to put the metric values in the manual as well, this is going to be primarily used in Canada. Any suggestions on the best way to do it, should I inclued the metric and inch values on each line, should I have seperate sections for the two, should I only use one or the other???
First install manual and I am not sure which is the best way to go. Thanks in advance for input.





RE: Installation Instructions
You need two bolts about the size of a Labatt's cap, eh, with washers and nuts to go with them. You got that eh?
RE: Installation Instructions
RE: Installation Instructions
Steve is correct about the plating.
You should have four washers - under the head of the bolt and under the nut.
RE: Installation Instructions
Check & see if metric hardware really is available in Canada, or if it's really imperial with soft-converted dimensions. If it is, you might just do inches. On the other hand, if they really do have true metric fasteners, and it'll ONLY be used in Canada, might as well just do metric. If it'll be used in the US as well, and both kinds of hardware are available, you'll need both.
It's really more about readability than correct formatting, though. If you need both units and putting them in one line is too confusing, have two sections.
Hg
RE: Installation Instructions
Pick the largest metric size that will go thru your holes, and add it as a separate table to the side of your existing table. We have found that doing anything else (such as including metric dimensions in parentheses) will sometimes offend. Keep your foreign customers happy; don't make their measurement system look like an afterthought.
Let us know what you decide!
Best to ya,
Old Dave
RE: Installation Instructions
If you are going to use both units and it'll primarily be used in Canada, then if anything goes in parentheses it should be the inches. The official measurement system of the target country is the primary unit.
Hg
RE: Installation Instructions
RE: Installation Instructions
1 inch (25 mm) diameter
For your fasteners, unfortunately, it doesn't make much sense to convert because a 5/8" inch bolt carries with it more dimensional requirements than just a 0.625 inch outer diameter.
You could specify metric fasteners as a second choice:
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 or M16 8.8 Machine Bolts
Two 5/8” or 16 mm Flat Washers (Zinc Plated)
Two 5/8” UNC Grade 5 or M16 8.8 Hex Nuts
Regards,
Cory
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.
RE: Installation Instructions
"Open up a Labatts, eh, and pour it into a mug. Getch'er self two bolts. Not so big that they don't fit down the bottle neck, eh, but not so small that they fall all the way in the bottle, and some nuts and washers to match..."
RE: Installation Instructions
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RE: Installation Instructions
I'm assuming that your company is supplying the sheet metal cabinets because the Canadians are too busy dealing with Labbatts etc to make their own.
RE: Installation Instructions
To be honest, even though we're "metric" up here, a large part of what we do is still based on inch measurements. If I head down to the hardware store, I would have a much easier time finding 5/8" fasteners than I would finding M16 8.8 (Unless its one of those monster home depot or rona stores. In that case I can't find ANYTHING).
That being said, you could probably get away with just the 5/8" UNC specification. But I'm not sure what the standards are for your application, so you may have to indicate metric sizes to meet them.
If the hoser reading the instructions can't figure out what a 5/8" UNC bolt/nut/washer is, then he shouldn't be at the top of that pole, eh?
RE: Installation Instructions
RE: Installation Instructions
We probably will supply the brackets but liability issues and the certification are the main reason the directions and details. The cabinets are going up on the Utility poles and then are going to have over 700 pounds of batteries and electrical equipment in them so mounting properly is key. If disaster ever strikes the directive to use proper hardware and mounting method will be one of the first things reviewed. The fortunate part is the utility company must approve installation.
RE: Installation Instructions
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Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
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RE: Installation Instructions
Hg
RE: Installation Instructions
LOL - I know. And after the 1994 Phewick "Century" (hah)and the 1989 CanHearEveryValveRappingOnLongExtendTrips S-10 minitruck, my wife and I are now both satisfied Honda owners.
Too bad cars aren't made like the 1974-1975 Buick Century/Olds Cutlass anymore.
RE: Installation Instructions
Some nut will try to screw a M16 nut on the 5/8"UNC x 3"
Murphy's Law
Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr
RE: Installation Instructions
Dammit, THERE IS ONE & ONE ONLY OPTIMUM BOLT, WASHER, & NUT ASSEMBLY FOR THIS JOB. Now I say, SELECT IT AND STICK TO IT. If you have to supply it with the assembly so what? The site guys that want to use something LESS THAN OPTIMUM well then, that's up to them but, they are on their own the moment they opt to go away from the optimum.
RE: Installation Instructions
I agree with rnd2. Somewhere, some time, a professional engineer called a designer specified what fasteners he wanted to put the whole shebang together.
A 5/8 UNC bolt is not the same as a 5/8 UNF or an M16 or any of the other hundred or so similar-sized thread forms that exist in the world. In many applications the selection is not critical, but it's not the installer's right or privelege to change it.
We exist in an increasingly litigious world where blame has to be attributed to every failure. Change the designer's specification at your peril.