ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area small screws or "arrruuuggghhhh!!!"

From Alan Belson:

LOL Alan
That would not work for me, my luck with dropped small screws is too bad for it to have a chance

My eyes don't work any better than my ears. I keep a small container of extra screws in the tool bag and don't even try to find the dropped screw unless I spot it right away. Even the ceiling fan screws ... almost every ceiling fan comes with an extra screw or two. Over the years I have never thrown one out and have lots of extra blade screws, blade mount screws, washers and metric machine screws all in one container.

[This message has been edited by Steve Miller (edited 05-02-2005).]

Barring mecahnical adjuncts, another trick for one handed screw starts is to use a piece of electrical / duct tape on the end of your screwdriver to hold the screw in place until it seats.

Basically, you make a hole about the dia. of your screw shaft, slide it over the screw, sticky side towards the head, then seat the screw on the driver and press the tape onto the shaft.

Here's a bad ASCII illustration:

tape ------------------\
Screwdriver shaft +{========
tape ------------------/

The tape should provide enough hold to keep the screw a) seated and b) off the floor, and then by holding the tape and pulling away from the (now 3/4 inserted) screw, you can remove the tape and finish the screw placement.

+100 for the low-angle flashlight trick. Don;t forget to check under the nearest immovible object - usually about 2" farthe in then your longest reaching object

If all the screws would be Robertson head there would be a lot less screws being dropped.

Great Picture Alan!

LOL

Bill

100% agreed re: Robertson screws and screwdrivers. When I first went to Canada I cursed them, not having the tools to deal with them, a quick visit to Canadian Tire and I was a convert. Love the picture, but those pants could be dangerous if you dropped the ballast itself

On tips to reduce the likelyhood of dropping screws, the gum tip does work really well, but gets a little fiddly after the 45th screw.

I have had a lot of success for certain sizes of screw only, using a piece of soft rubber hose over the screwdriver, flexible enough to stick the screwhead into, but easy enough to pull off Soft sheathing from some types of cords might also work.

Steve,
Your method, of putting all your different spare screws into a container, kind of breaks down when you get into your sixties, like me, and find you have half a dozen 1 gallon ice-cream tubs full of everything but what you need!
Alan