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Top-level
 Honestly, "Rightie Tightie, Lefty Loosie" is terrible, because there is still ambiguity. Right from the top of the bolt, or the bottom of the bolt? From your face, or the bolt's face? There is generally a better frame of reference: Clockwise (and Counter Clockwise), since it's defined already by a standard. Thus is born, CCW = OFF, CW = ON (unless you have an infernal left-handed screw, but those are quite rare). 33 comments
@gothnbass @atatassault @sarahbecan let me just clear it up for you. Righty Tighty Lefty Loosey assumes that the pointy end of the screw is facing away from your face. In this orientation the top side of the screw is the relevant surface pertaining to moving left and right. With a truss rod that means the head of the guitar is closest to you. If in doubt, turn the trust rod a quarter turn after noting the bend in the neck, and check the bend in 30 minutes for any change. @Klaxun @atatassault @sarahbecan I disagree, most people are aware that they're getting screwed.   @atatassault Indeed. If you're using a wrench, with the handle towards you, the rule is the exact opposite. I'm not aware of such a rule existing in my language. There may be one, but certainly not as widely known as the one in English. @veronica @atatassault My language also lacks a specific expression for this. I always tried both ways until high-school when I noticed that the direction to turn a bolt/wrench matches with the right-hand rule for Ampère's law. Ever since, I've been mentally visualizing in which direction should the bolt turn to come out or go in… but I admit it's not a very scalable approach 😅.
@veronica See, I dont even understand the directions you mean with your wrench example. Right and Left have no meaning for a rotational axis.  @atatassault @sarahbecan Not as rare as you might think, speaking as a former mechanic. (Motorbike, outboard motor, marine diesel etc.) @atatassault @sarahbecan I used to encounter left handed screws a lot and we had a running joke of "lefty-tighty, righty-loosey" lol @atatassault @sarahbecan that's how I've always understood it. @atatassault @sarahbecan Totally get this. What do right and left have to do with it? I'm not going sideways, I'm trying to make this thing move up or down by rotating it! @atatassault @sarahbecan and here we get into pet peeves like... why do water taps adher to this (I know, it's the mechanics of a screw) but volume controls and stove heat controls are the opposite? Why aren't all "turn controls" the same?  @WhyNotZoidberg @atatassault @sarahbecan I don't know why volume controls are the way they are but I believe stove heat controls are the opposite because of the legacy of gas stoves. All the screws and bolts in natural gas systems are lefty-tighty, righty-loosey for safety, so people who don't know what they're doing will tend to tighten things instead of loosening them. @atatassault @sarahbecan  @leadore CW/CCW has one perspective issue (looking from the cap end, or the tip end/hole), whereas left/right has *two*: that one, plus whether you're looking at the lateral movement at the top or the bottom of the circle of motion. I often get confused about the latter, but never the former, since I am almost always manipulating the screw from cap end, even if I'm looking at it from another angle. @Dorythefish When the thumb moves towards the right, the pinky moves towards the left and vice versa - one has to know which part of the circle is being described by "left"/"right" - it's usually the top. Thinking about rotation relative to a point *outside* the axis is not intuitive for everyone, hence the preference of some for CW/CCW, or the need for a mnemonic that specifies which part is left/right. @eishiya Right or left from what frame of reference? Since that nmeumonic doesnt establish an FoR, you cant tell. But CCW and CW have implicit frames of reference since they're literally defined by how analog clocks work. @atatassault @sarahbecan That's always bugged me as well, but I recently learned a much better CW/CCW version: Time's getting tight! You can also think in terms of the right hand rule, if you're familiar with vectors. Point your right thumb in the direction you want the fastener to go, rotate it in the direction your fingers curl.  @atatassault @sarahbecan I've heard "Clockwise to Close", but the reverse doesn't work... @atatassault @sarahbecan if you rotate a screw around so the head faces away from you (or, more likely, if you are unscrewing something on the other side of something) that also reverses clockwise/counterclockwise. The ambiguity still exists. This is frequently confusing to people and it would be just as confusing with your reframing. There's simply no way to know how to loosen a given screw without the ability to visualize its spacial relation to you. @someonetellmetosleep @sarahbecan Clockwise is named after literal clocks. The frame of reference is not ambiguous. It is always the face of the clock/manipulated object. @atatassault @sarahbecan This is an entirely arbitrary rule you've just made up @someonetellmetosleep @sarahbecan "This is an entirely arbitrary rule you've just made up" You're starting to sound like a right winger who says words don't have inherent meaning. Where do you think the "clock" in clockwise comes from? Actually, nevermind, don't answer that. I don't need to see another comment from a person who says that I'm making up meaning that has existed for hundreds of years. |
Gregory's Server
@atatassault @sarahbecan most people don't see the world from the perspective of the screw.