Material → Fastener → Tool12 builds3 areas

Applications

An application is where the three databases meet: the material decides the fastener, and the fastener decides what you need to drive it. Every build below states its dimensions first and works everything else back from them — the cut list, the bolt lengths, the tooling.

The chain, in order

Most build mistakes trace back to choosing these in the wrong order. Picking the screw before deciding the material, or picking the tool before knowing the tightening torque, leaves the one constraint that actually matters until last — when it is expensive to change.

What decides the material?
Exposure first, load second. Indoors and dry, plain steel with a coating is adequate. Outdoors, or anywhere chlorides are present — coast, salt water, swimming pool plant rooms — stainless A4 (316) is the only one of the common alloys that resists pitting. Load only becomes the governing question once the corrosion question is settled. Browse materials →
What decides the fastener?
The material it goes into, not the material it is made of. Softwood takes a wood screw directly; hardwood and engineered board normally want a pilot hole or they split. Metal-to-metal joints use machine screws or bolts, and masonry needs an anchor rather than a screw. The thread — coarse for wood and plastic, fine for metal — is what makes the difference. Browse fasteners →
What decides the tool?
The drive and the torque. A hex socket head needs an Allen key or bit; a slotted head needs a driver that matches its width or it cams out and chews the slot. Where a tightening torque is specified, the tool has to be able to measure it — a torque wrench, not an impact driver, which will exceed the figure without telling you. Torque calculator →

Three application areaswhat the parts and materials are for

Repair is deliberately its own area rather than a corner of "DIY projects": restoring something that is already built is a different job from building it, and the two fail in different ways.

4 buildsFurnitureIndoor and shop pieces where the material is chosen for wear, and every part is small enough to handle alone.Open →4 buildsBuildingStructures that live outside, where exposure decides the fastener before load does and every joint has to survive being wet.Open →4 buildsRepairJobs that start with a diagnosis rather than a design, and end when the existing part works again.Open →

What is not herethree gaps, and why they are gaps

Wood screws
This database carries machine screws, bolts, nuts and washers under published dimensional standards. Wood screws are not in it, so no wood screw size is quoted on any project page — the decks and fences here specify the bolted structure instead, and say so. Browse fasteners →
Masonry anchors
The fixing from a shelf bracket into brick depends on the substrate, and the anchor families are not carried here. The wall-fixing project sets out the decision chain and is explicit about the one step it does not cover. Read the wall fixing →
Floor repairs
Floor boards and stair treads are fixed with nails and screws, neither of which is in this database, so there is no floor project yet. An empty category would be a page saying nothing; this note is the honest alternative.

Start from a database instead

MaterialsDensity, applications and property classes for metals, wood and plastics — the first decision in the chain.Open →Fasteners2,273 specification pages with dimension tables, thread data and weight estimates.Open →ToolsWhat each tool does, the materials it is used on, and the drive forms it fits.Open →