Greetings all; This need for a looooong allen set screw as the starting material for this differential screw that Andy reminded me of is being a problem. fleabay searches don't seen to be getting any hits tonight.
1. I am not enamored of the idea of heating up a piece of redi-thread and driving a broken off allen wrench into it to create the socket, primarily because the heat will soften an already crappy piece of steel, and will destroy the dimensional accuracy of the threads on the outside anyway. 2. I am impressed with the 'torx' head supplied in decking screws for the construction trades, and have used quite a few (20+) pounds of them over the last 2 or 3 years since they have become available. It strikes me that some of the smaller mills or drills intended for PCB machining, made from solid carbide that cut with quite low forces if driven slowly enough that they can clear the swarf easily, could be used to drill a pattern in the end of a grade 12 screw that corresponds to the fins on the torx bit. Follow the drilling of those holes, say 4mm deep, with a larger 2 flute mill on dead center to remove the center to a 4mm depth, should give a splined socket for a T-30 torx bit (I have those as a set with normal screw driver handles that would work quite nicely to drive these differential screws and that would be quite a bit stronger than the allen wrench shaped socket due to its tendency to wedge and crack open the socket which then wedges the threads into the hole. EDM is the only way to remove one of those, making that a right PIMA if it should crack. And in my experience, allen set screws are like concrete, the question is not "will" it crack, but "when" because it will, always. Shall I get out the calipers and start measuring flute widths to see if I have to order more bits? mscdirect is getting to where they recognize my voice, so that isn't a huge problem. Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up! Expansion means complexity; and complexity decay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
