Deltana SCMB1205 Machine Screw, Solid Brass, #12 x 1/2"

The SCMB1205 is a #12 x 1/2 inch machine screw. That's a #12 machine thread with a 1/2 inch length, so it's a short fastener meant for mounting hardware onto a prepped door or frame rather than anchoring into wood depth. If the hardware you're mounting needs more reach through a thicker door or a spacer, you need a longer #12 screw, not this one.

Machine screws like the SCMB1205 thread into a tapped hole or a threaded post, not into wood or a solid door blank. Use it where the hardware itself provides the threads, knob and lever roses, escutcheons, door knockers, mail slots, hinge-mounted trim with threaded inserts. If you are fastening straight into a wood door or jamb with no tapped hole, a #12 machine screw will not hold and you want a wood screw instead.

Nine finishes: polished brass, PVD polished brass, unlacquered brass, antique brass, oil rubbed bronze, brushed nickel, antique nickel, polished chrome, and brushed chrome. The point of that range is matching, you order the screw in the same finish as the escutcheon, rose, or knocker it is holding so the fastener head disappears into the trim instead of standing out.

Yes. The SCMB1205 is part of Deltana's Solid Brass Machine Screws line, offered in nine finishes so a lost or stripped screw can be replaced in the exact finish of the trim it came out of. If you are replacing one, check the head style and thread on the original before ordering, the SCMB1205 covers the #12 x 1/2 inch size.

Deltana lists the SCMB1205 as a residential product. For a house, a condo unit, or light-traffic multi-family trim it is the right fastener. On a commercial opening with a Grade 1 lockset, an exit device, or a fire-rated assembly, use the fasteners supplied with that hardware, those are engineered to the device and to the fire label, and substituting a decorative brass screw is not a like-for-like swap.

It comes down to what's on the other side of the hole. A machine screw like the SCMB1205, #12 x 1/2 inch, is right when the hardware has a threaded post, a tapped boss, or a back plate the screw draws into, common on knockers, mail slots, and two-piece escutcheon sets. A wood screw is right when the fastener has to cut its own threads in a wood door or jamb. Getting this backwards is the usual reason a piece of trim will not pull tight.

They will. Unlacquered brass is one of the nine SCMB1205 finishes and it is bare metal with no clear coat, so it patinas with handling and weather. Polished brass and PVD polished brass are sealed and hold their color. Match the screw to the trim: an unlacquered brass knocker wants an unlacquered brass screw so the two age together, and pairing a PVD screw with unlacquered trim leaves a bright dot on a darkened plate a year in.