For the repair guides - what dimension are the screws measured in?
Would I need a digital caliper to differentiate?
Is this a worthwhile discussion?
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Hello @infmswsr ,
In general, guides can follow a few different formats. Guides written by our iFixit team should specify which units the screws are measured in. Within community written guides, things can be less clear. You could try commenting on a guide to find out this bit of information and hopefully the author replies to you in a timely manner.
Using a digital caliper would be the most precise way to get a measurement, but any ruler with mm, cm, and inches will work, too!
I hope this answers your question, let me know if you have more!
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Usually screws are measured by thicknees and length, so you can shop for wooden screws of 4 by 2 1/2, meaning 4mm thick X 2 1/2 inches long.
@infmswsr careful with that. Not all manuals on here measure the screw diameter. You will find that most of them actually measure the length. Sometimes you can differentiate by checking the accompanying images. If in doubt, ask.
@oldturkey03 I usually don't notate it, so I tell my readers to sort it as if they were mirroring the original device as much as possible.
As far as my sorting, depends on the device - if I know they're the same, I put them in the same pile. If there's a difference I know where the long and short screw goes enough of the time I can have 2 piles. If it's something like an HP with mixed screws I put the long ones in first to make it easier.
Sometimes if it's a noteworthy difference (Ex: DVD drive screw) I'll take a photo with it, but if it's something like the 840 G3's magnesium subframe, it says 2.5x5 or 2.5x7 and thin means 2.5x7 and 2.5x5 is the "common" screw covering 95% of them.
@nick sure sorting it properly during disassembly is a key factor. The issues pop up when you try to repair equipment that may have a couple of screws missing :-) It would be great if all of us that have /create guides would use a caliper and measure diameter and length and note this in our guides. It'll help somebody later on.
@oldturkey03 The issue is time - it takes time and few will likely need it. It's more trouble then it's usually worth.
If I'm missing a screw I sort it by putting it where it fits and it's critical (ex: hinges) and leave a non critical screw unpopulated. An example could be like if the 2.5x7 screw on my 840 G3 is lost by a hinge but the cover screw is present - the screw for the bottom is not something you need (however, the screw near the Ethernet port *is* basically needed due to how the port is setup) so I'd steal it from the SD card slot and put it near the hinge. Eventually I'd probably replace it but in the meantime I'd rather no screw where I can forego it over risking chassis damage or a loose part.
You do make a good point - I've bought devices from charities who bring in volunteers and a screw goes missing or misplaced from time to time unless it's never going to fit, in which case it's not there. Maybe I'll put some notes in there like that regarding length but it's not going to be deep with a digital caliper. I've also seen the SSD screw for the M.2 bay go missing and never reinstalled - on commerical surplus the WWAN screw is usually the same so we can borrow that one since normal users tend to never use the WWAN slot in most cases - myself too. I usually use a external hotspot or public WiFi due to the plan not being tied to a laptop alone.