Ultra thin screwdriver

True enough. But to be honest, I suspect that I wouldn't need to make more than 20 bits (in a reasonable length of time, anyway). So the majority of those Allen keys will sit on a shelf unused.

I will. I actually feel a bit bad not making the screwdrivers, but there's always a point at which you have to decide what you're going to make and what you're going to buy. Right now I have too many projects on the go, and making screwdrivers seems less appealing than the other projects I'm working on. But when I find a worn screwdriver that I no longer want, I'll have a go at grinding it and see how neat it turns out.

Doesn't the sleeve prevent you from seeing if the bit is located in the slot?

Personally I think that sometimes a slotted screw head is needed for appearance. On some devices, a Phillips or Allen head looks wrong.

I've never seen square drive wood screws. Must be an American thing.

Sometime I might get a manual torque limiting screwdriver, but for the time being I'm managing without.

Mostly on electrical equipment made between the 1930s and 1950s, together with a few on clocks. You could certainly buy those big "cheese head" screws in England up until recently. I bought some 0 BA screws in that style a few years back, but when I went back for more, they were no longer available.

The ones I've had break were made from a clear yellow plastic. When the plastic broke, it looked almost like glass. I didn't hammer them. It was torque in normal use which caused them to break.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy
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For the larger sized screws, I think it would be difficult to exert sufficient torque using an X-Acto handle.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Christopher Tidy wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cantabgold.net:

Are you thinking about the pen-thin handles or the HD one with the red plastic handle?

The HD one will let you apply more torque than any .020"-thick material (that I've ever heard of) can withstand.

The one I'm referring to is shown here:

Reply to
RAM³

No, I've got the middle one in that picture.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Gunsmith screwdriver bits like the Brownell's are usually hollow ground so they bear only on the bottom of the slot. Much less likely to cam out of the slot that way. Admittedly, that'd be hard to do when working with 0.020" thick blades.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

O.K. So go for 0.375" x 0.025". :-) But really -- one does not expect to stick with fractions down as small as your thickness -- and if they did, it would be more likely listed as 1/40th. But when looking for tools (like the slotting saws), stick with the decimal format.

Hmm ... I'll have to check it again -- but it is too late tonight. Maybe it is M3x0.45 instead. Since it is cut by a set of chasers in a Geometric die head in production, I don't have to remember the figures -- just pick up my smallest die head, which normally has the right chasers in it -- and all else that I have which will fit it are Imperial sizes.

Right. It would be really difficult to make them with vertical walls by that technique.

[ ... ]

Magnets can be helpful -- or deadly. :-)

O.K. That means that they are likely the longer ones (not enough length to give a grip point for pulling it out with the groove and tip and the shorter design for magnetic tips. And the longer ones are more likely to fall out with the magnetic grip, since they weigh more.

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols
[ ... ]

O.K. After that, you may find yourself wondering why you waited so long. :-)

[ ... ]

It guides the bit on center to the screw (ideally, the shank is the same diameter as the width of the tip and the diameter of the screw head), and you then rotate the screwdriver a bit to either feel the bit drop into the slot, or feel the resistance because it is already in the slot. Granted, a Phillips, or even more so a Torx, requires less turn to drop in.

Actually -- they were invented in Canada by Robertson (thus the name) and are usually called "square drive" here. They are far better than Phillips for the kind of torque needed by long wood screws. They don't cam out, and can carry a reasonable length screw on the tip of the driver.

I suspect that they will make their way to the UK soon enough. They are that much better than the alternatives.

[ ... torque limiting screwdrivers ... ]

It is a very good thing to have with expensive tape drives like the Exabyte Mammoth ones which occasionally need to be opened up to swap out a 50-pin SCSI interface for a 68-pin one, or for a fibre channel interface.

They use tiny screws, and fairly thin and soft steel chassis, so too much torque can strip out the threads in the chassis.

[ ... ]

Which are relatively rare in the US. The first ones which I remember were holding together the fuel pumps for my MGAs. I've rebuilt several of those. :-)

O.K. Time for a specialty screw supply store. :-)

[ ... ]

Hmm ... some plastics tend to react badly to certain solvents -- even to Freon TF (a pretty gentle solvent). Anywhere there is stress (including tapped holes) and any solvent (including oil for lubricating the tapping), you will develop cracks radiating from that point. I've experienced this with Plexiglas (I think Perspex in the UK), and other clear plastics. So it may be that oil from the toolbox worked its way into the gap between the blade's shank and the handle, and started the cracks -- and when torque was applied, it split.

The GSA screwdrivers used a softer gray plastic, and the really good ones from Snap-On (with triangular handles for good torque grip) were black. Later ones went to square instead of triangular, which I rather regret.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Christopher Tidy wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cantabgold.net:

They're cheap.

The large handle will let you apply as much torque as the "blade" will handle.

It may be that the chisel blades might meet your criteria with only a little bit of dulling on a stone.

You can even use it for its original purpose as well.

Reply to
RAM³

I'm going with the Clip-Tip style. I also notice that they describe the Clip-Tip handle as minimising bit wobble. This is good, as bit wobble has been one of my biggest complaints with interchangeable bit screwdrivers in the past.

Sadly the exchange rate is poorer than it was a month or so ago. The dollar is stronger. I might wait until next Wednesday and see if the rate is better for me after the election.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Possibly so. I just feel like I've got a million and one projects on the go right now.

I think it was just the wrong kind of plastic. A bad design decision. It looked like that brittle clear plastic used for the lenses of vehicle lamps, etc.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

O.K.

Hmm ... so it is time for me to order something from the UK instead? :-)

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Could be. It's $1.63 to £1 at the moment. Earlier in the year it was $2.00 to £1. If you need anything and want someone in England to get it for you and ship it across, I'm more than happy to do it.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Sounds much like

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is often on sale at half price.

Reply to
James Waldby

So, the Chinese have caught up with what Japan was making in the early '70s? I had that happen while drilling through 1/8" thick plastic glovebox to install a stereo for a customer.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

[ ... ]

Yep -- that it exactly it -- except that mine is in green plastic instead of red. (Red would be harder to misplace. :-)

I picked mine up at a closeout bin at the MicroCenter computer chain.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Hmm ... I never had that happen with the set of fractional bits (1/16-1/4") from Japan which I had about 1960. The surface finish was terrible, but all in all, it held up through all of the use which I put it to. And a lot of that was powered with an eggbeater drill, where I could not have an electric drill.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

On 3 Nov 2008 02:16:52 GMT, the infamous "DoN. Nichols" scrawled the following:

Surprisingly enough, I believe eggbeater drills subject the bits to a lot more odd-angled stresses than their equivalent electric or air-powered counterparts. I've never had a reverse spiral, but I did have that one 90-degree angle bit that one time.

When I went back to Phoenix in '74 to work one summer (oh, what a fool I was...she hadn't even waited for me), I ended up putting auto air conditioners in brand new trucks. I took my air drill inside the cab and, with a standard 3/16" twist bit, drilled out all of the existing louvers, using it as a saw. That was a thrill, drilling gaping holes in brand new plastic dashboards.

-- Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for. -- Earl Warren

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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