Does This Impress You?

Yes Michael I hate that too. Its strange that the usual head for wood screws is Pozi but the brass ones tend to use Phillips which do look very nice when not chewed up.

Easy remedy for those with screw alignment issued is to switch to Torx

Posidrive/Phillips doubt if even 10% of the population know. There are some other variants too - we had a problem with some aircraft quality ones at £6 each

Adjusting head length is normal on clock screws - see many an article in ME.

Didn't Whitworth specify the handles on spanners (short) when he defined his thread system to make them monkey proof?

You see something similar on lorry wheels with the yellow plastic tags,

Stew

To fit a brass screw without marking it, first put in a steel screw, remove it, then put in the brass screw with a good fitting screwdriver. A lot of screws used here in NZ these days have Robertson heads, square hole, they seem to be easier to drive under power. Ian S C

Some years ago when replacing old steel hinges with posher solid brass ones it always annoyed me that most brass hinges seemed to be countersunk to fit ODD number screws. The normally available No.8, No 10 etc being either two big or two small for a properly "fitted" look . Was there any reason for this?

John

I think I'm off to saw some pallets up for firewood.

Do I try to keep to plus or minus 0.010" thou lads ?

John S.

Jason B re Torx-

I know you were joking but there is a serious note about using Torx - Don't ever use them on equipment used or stored outdoors. The head cavities will fill with rust and you will not be able to drive them. The cavity splines are very difficult to clean rust out of, and this gets worse the smaller the fasteners are. In the 1980's GM started using Torx head screws to retain underbody brake and suspension components on most of their cars in North America. In the Northen US and Canada many towns and cities salt the roads in winter to help clear ice, causing major corrosion issues on the steel components of cars, especially exposed fasteners. Within a year the Torx fasteners were not removeable. Thousands of mechanic man-hours were lost wrestling with those buggers, either trying to clear out rust or welding on a bar to the heads to break them loose. I hate Torx fasteners with a passion and replace them with anything else whenever possible on outdoor equipment.

JD

I like to see screw slots lined up.attention to detail.

Pailo.

Hi, buy a load of these http://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/a2-security-shear-nuts/cat840486

all your nut lining up problems will be solved

Regards Nick.

How can you! old pallets can make lovely window boxes or planters..... some of mine even have straight screw slots......most have rusty old recycled pallet nails though

P

Wot !! - No CNC in your woodwork department then John?

N

Edited By NJH on 04/03/2012 16:56:57

I have an aversion to that brown stuff hence the chuckles of glee when it's all goes on the stove to keep me warm

Thinking about this OCD that seems to attract a large number of this hobby I have come to the conclusion that i may be falling under it's spell, let me explain.

On my truck wheel trims it says FIAT, now when I'm driving down the road it's OK as they are turning but when I stop at the lights how do I know that they are not all level.

Do I need to get out and look, then jump back in and ease forward or back a bit and what happens if they are all at different angles ?

John S.

Mmmm..... they could well be different angles and worst of all different angles from each other!, you are now faced with the prospect of quickly whipping out your jack and rotating the offending wheel/s until they align......or remove the wheel trims and replace in an aligned position.

Surely a better long term solution (and less missed Traffic lights) might be to remove the trims spin/press a recess in the area behind the logo and fit angular contact ball bearings which could be used in conjunction with a suitable mandrel to support the badge?

P

Yes as paul says with your ability I'm surprised that you don't have spinner type wheels with a weight bias to keep the logo level.

J

Edited By JasonB on 04/03/2012 18:36:23

As I recall when overloaded phillips screwdrivers and screws damage the screwdriver, posidrive stays engaged, damaging the screw. Use phillips for things that need to be repeatedly assembeled and broken down, pozi for things that won't be.

Neil

Well, this stirred up a response!

I am not sure if aligning heads up would ever impress me as even if the heads had been machined/selected to ensure alignment I dont know this and would/could still assume that the fixing had been over or under tightened!

Happy screwing!

Alan

Keep 'em on the minus side John, too long and they won't fit in the fire box.

Depends on whether the glass is half full or half empty, dunnit.

When fitting a cylinder cover on a model engne should the screw slots be aligned radially or circumferentially?