This one is slightly off the wall but here goes: When did Atlas change the screws that they use in their electrical components from slotted to phillips? I just purchased a pair of Control Boxes for a 3-way turnout and found that the screws were phillips rather than the slotted that I had seen previously. (There were also a few extra as well. Not that I am complaining. I have lost more of those than I care to admit.)
As usual, any assistance that can be provided will be most welcomed.
Actually, not a bad question. As a "honey-do-list" husband and garage shop woodworker, mechanical fasteners which use Phillips head (or square box or hex-head) methods of control are preferable to single slots because your tool has a more secure contact with the fastener, and that improved control translates into more torque and a more sure attachment. Yesterday I changed the air filter in my wife's car and was glad that the air box used Phillips head screws-particularly when I had to fish around behind where I could only insert the tool and not use my eyes.
With the Atlas controls, not every slotted screwdriver will precisely match the slot width on the older fasteners, resulting in slippage and possibly not a secure attachment of the wire- or damage to the fastener head. Not exactly critical as far as such but if you are later looking for the reason something is not getting powered, that poorly secured slotted screw might just be the reason!
I know this a bit if an over-explanation, but if it helps....
Cedarwoodron
Oh don't get started on bit to screw head contact, or all our Canuckian friends will start extolling the virtues of the Robertson head screw
No idea when Atlas changed, all the old ones I have fromt he early 70's had slotted screws. While there certainly are advantages to other types, for the intended purpose these were fine with plain slotted screws.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker Oh don't get started on bit to screw head contact, or all our Canuckian friends will start extolling the virtues of the Robertson head screw
And well they should. Phillips are an improvement, but Robertson's are better. Just wish they were common in the U.S.
Paul
They are common in the Midwest. Used a lot for deck screws. I just didn't know that the "square socket" screw was the actually the Robertson, until I just looked up what a Robertson screw was!
Another common screw around here is the Torx. It has 6 points to it. And just like the slotted and phillips, the "Robertson" and the "Torx" come in a couple of different sizes.
You really have to watch what your getting, and make sure you have the right bit to use them.
Mike.
My You Tube
Personally I find the Philips to be beter than the Robertson but then I have been in many situations where I could not get in proper position to extrude the screw, and accually this happens alot, not always by design but by inferior trades people. Going at a screw in a situaton that is say 30 degrees out, the slotted is the worst, followed by the robertson. The torx dose fine but the more the angle the worst it gets, same with the philips but the torx will lose grip first. Philips is also superior in speed screwing.
LION pays attention not about Atlas Screws. LION avoids screws becaus of arthritis, soldering is so much easier.
But speaking of screws, you will have noticed the warp in the fabric of the universe. If you drop a screw to the floor (It does not matter if you are in the train room or the computer repair office) the instant the screw touches the floor it shatters into 6 billion invisible fragments, and while I recognize the laws of physics prohibit the destruction of matter, It does seem to appear to have made an exception between floors and screws.
So If your screw seems to disappear, its matter did not cease to exist, but instead it is obiting a dark hole near Alpha Centuri.
ROAR
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Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
That warp works both ways though - some unknown time later, when you are in the same area that the screw was lost, but this time barefoot, the screw will suddenly reappear immediately under your foot.
I expect that really it is goign to some alternate dimension - when you lose a screw on the floor, it appears beneath the foot of some alternate dimensional being, and when they drop one, that's when it appears under your foot.
I work in a manufacturing facility in the maintenance dept. and 90% of screws on the assembly lines are metric hex (Allen). The only phillips or slotted screws I find are usually serial computer cables. The slotted screw is a dying breed.