Engineering in Miniature

Holding screw heads

- BY DAVID CONEY

This idea did not come to light when I was carrying out a model engineerin­g-related task, but while I was working on my 1933-vintage BSA car. However the idea should prove useful for any technical situation.

I happened to be working on the back of the instrument panel of said car, lying upside down in a very awkward position. I was trying to insert a grub-screw into its appropriat­e hole, but could only get one hand to the job. Of course every time I placed the screwdrive­r in the grub-screw slot and tried to put it into the threaded hole, the screw fell out.

How to keep the grub-screw attached to the screwdrive­r ? Well under normal conditions I might have used some thick grease to hold everything together, and no doubt

“Every time I placed the screwdrive­r

in the grub-screw

slot and tried to put it into the threaded hole, the

screw fell out...”

there are screwdrive­r devices on the market that do such a job.

But I was underneath the dashboard and did not want to extricate myself from that position as it had taken some contortion­s of my old body to get there.

So what was to hand that I could use - a bit of paper of course ! Take a small strip of paper, fold it in half and place in the slot of the screw or grub-screw or whatever. Then force the screwdrive­r into the slot, and if the paper strip is of the appropriat­e thickness the two will hold together to do the said job, as one can see in the photo.

■ If you have a technical tip to share with readers, send it to editor@ engineerin­ginminiatu­re.co.uk

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