Hello, Tom.
-=> TOM WALKER wrote to JIM HOLSONBACK <=-

 TW>  I have found Tamper Proof Torx Tools pelntiful and cheep at me First
 TW> Saturday Swap Meet.

What's that?  Is it a local event there, of somewhere Phil Marlowe can
get to on the Internet?

 TW> But if you are dealing with a Quality Torx sct\rew I would remind you
 TW> that they are Hardened Fastners and will not mash down very much at
 TW> all. Have you ever tried to drill out a Allen Set Screw??

Nope. Limited experience here, and I've broken more than one el-cheapo
Allen wrench, but I don't remember ever not finally getting one of
those set screws out. (sometimes with vise-grips on short end of
the Allen wrench, sometimes hitting long end of Allen wrench
with a hammer). Luckily, those set screws end up a lot of the time down
in a recess, so penetrating oil can often get down in there and help out
a bit.

 TW> Well the Torx fastners are typicaly made out of the same material.

OK, and I've already said that the material in heads of those TPT
screws is plenty hard.

I'm not sure that the color of the screws is a sure indication of the
hardness of the material used.  Seems to me it is more an indication of
what surface treatment the metal was given after the screws were
fabricated- be they phosphatized, bright plated, or whatever.  BIR, most
of the TPT screws I've seen have been bright plated.

My most recent encounter with those was on bottom plate of a "Mr.
Coffee" machine which I wanted to open up because the warmer burner
stopped working. The mfgr didn't want homeowner types messing around in
there, for obvious reasons.

- - -  JimH.

... You're Olde when your're older than your doctor, preacher and president.
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