New Trick

[Brian Rupnow]

Well, for me anyways. I was putting up new light fixtures on the ceiling this morning in the never ending renovation of our bungalow. The screws supplied had a very shallow Phillips head in them, and ther was just no way they would stay on the end of the screwdriver while I perched on a stepladder and reached over my head trying to screw them through a new light support and into the octagon electrical box. After dropping the screw half a dozen times, I went and got some masking tape out of my engineering office, poked a hole in the center of a 2" long piece and shoved the screw through from the sticky side. Then I stuck the tape to the shank of the screwdriver. Problem solved!!! When the screw was tightened in place, there was ejnough adhesion between the tape and the screwdriver that the screw stayed in place and the tape all came away with the screwdriver. I just can't figure out why its taken me damn near 66 years to figure this out!!! I guess that living in Canada, and most of our screws being Robertson heads, Ijust never ran into that problem before.

 

[picclock]

Hi Brian

Blu tack works as well and will do multiple screws with one piece (assuming you can get it in Canada)

Best Regards

picclock

 

[lampy]

I always figured the square drive screws were an excuse to get us to buy more tools, until I tried them. They do work well. I see you use your military issue pocket knife like I do those are one heck of a good knife.

 

[Bluechip]

Brian

They look like the sort that will take an ordinary slotted driver as well as crosspoint.

We get them all the time in UK. Particularly on electrical stuff.

Rubbishy, but we have to deal with 'em ..

Dave BC

 

[pkastagehand]

Seems like it has not been that many years that they've started putting the philips heads on them. They were even worse when they were only slotted.

 

[Ed T]

I noticed recently on a bunch of outlets and switches that I was installing that what looks like a combo slotted and Phillips head screw is really a combo slotted and square drive screw. This is why the Phillips driver never seems to work very well. Square drive works excellent. Not sure if this is on everything electrical or just the Leviton stuff at HD. I suspect it may be an effort to harmonize products in the US and Canada where the square Robertson drive is king.

 

[miner49r]

I have a set filed down for just such occasions. They work well. Especially the 0 an 00.

I don't know if anyone has seen a posi-drive phillips screw. I know I haven't, but I have a set of drivers for them too. The drivers work well on standard phillips when you can't get straight on them.
Alan

 

[Deko]

90% of cross point screws in the UK are pozidrive. Much better than phillips,because the driver do'es grip the screw,and there is not so much "cam out" when using power drivers.

Cheers Deko

 

[rleete]

Sort of a different version of Brian's trick: get some of those rare earth magnets at HF. They're about the size of button batteries, and pretty strong for their size. Stick one to the side of the screwdriver, near the end. Magnetizes the screwdriver enough to hold the screws in place. Only downside is that it can slightly magnetize the screwdriver after the magnet is pulled off.

I've used the tape thing, too.

 

[n4zou]

While in the US Navy there were times when working on a Gas Turbine engine a dropped screw would become an instant disaster. We would put a drop of super glue on the screw and stick it on the driver. The screw was run in and the driver twisted slightly to break the super glue.

Once I was called down to the #1 engine room to find a fresh out of 'A' school Fireman had dropped a screw down a fuel injector port into a combustion tube while re-installing the fuel injectors that had just been serviced. He was told not to do that job alone but went ahead anyway. Retrieving that screw would normally have required spiting the engine between the combustion and power turbine sections of the engine and removing the combustion tubes and shaking out the screw. Starting the engine with that loose screw inside would have destroyed the engine when the screw was forced into the power turbine blades. Lucky for him (and us) we had received a new bore scope kit just a few weeks before. I taped a Flexible Retrieving Tool to the bore scope and was able to reach into the combustion tube through the fuel injector port, grab the screw, and pull it out of the engine. Everyone involved issued a sigh of relief including the Captain because removing the engine to get the screw out would have involved heading back to port and 50 man hours of work. We were in the Persian Gulf at the time......

 

[steamboatmodel]

I worked with one chap who always had a wad of bubblegum in his mouth, He would use some of it to hold screws, washers nuts etc. in place while fastening them.
Regards,
Gerald.

 

[Tin Falcon]

when I worked at the Yacht yard we sometimes had to assemble stuff through a blind hole a little calk sealant on a socket would hold the nut and washer in place until it was screwed on the stud.
n4zou
Nice save.
when I was working on F-16s in sheet metal we frequently had to go behind the screw (crew) chiefs and remove stuck panel screws. One day one of my co -workers came back to the shop in a bit of a panic. He had drilled a screw and then busted out an easy out into it. Soooo. i pull out the die grinder with a carbide bit grind out the easy out then grab a scew extractor and one of these

and extract the screw. all in a days work.
Tin