Fasteners & Hardware Department

Start with what the wall is. Into a stud, skip the anchor and use a screw long enough to bite about an inch of solid wood. Into hollow drywall, a plastic expansion plug suits light loads, a self-drilling threaded anchor holds more, and a toggle that spreads behind the board holds the most — that is what a heavy shelf or a grab bar needs. Into brick, block or concrete, you drill with a masonry bit and use a screw or sleeve anchor sized to the hole. If the load is overhead or safety-critical, find a stud or a structural fixing.

For a wood screw, the first number is the gauge — the shank diameter, where a bigger number is thicker — and the second is length in inches, so a #8 x 1½″ is a mid-weight screw an inch and a half long. Machine screws and bolts are called out by diameter, threads per inch and length, as in ¼-20 x 1″. Metric runs diameter, thread pitch, length: M6 x 1.0 x 20. If you are matching an existing fastener, bring it in; a gauge on the counter settles it in seconds.

A blank is an uncut key with the right profile for a given lock brand and keyway — the ridges along its length that let it enter that cylinder at all. Cutting a copy means matching the blank first, then grinding the depths from your original. Two things stop a copy: a key on a restricted or patented profile, where the blanks are controlled and only an authorised dealer can supply them, and a key with a transponder chip or high-security laser milling, which needs programming or specialised equipment. Ordinary house, office and padlock keys are the everyday case; the key types guide covers what can and cannot be copied.