Hi all,

I have a 1973 22' Barth. I am planning to remove my cabinets to refinish or paint them, but I just noticed they are fastened with a wood screw that has an odd shaped head. It requires a bit I have never seen before. Anyone out there run into this problem before? Any idea of what the screwdriver head or bit required is called? I don't even know what to ask for at the hardware store.

Thanks

Cory Gillard

If it has a square hole in it, there is a special driver for it and that can be found at any hardware, RV or auto parts store. A phillips head screw driver will remove it unless it is really tight. Once removed, you can take it down to the store and get the correct driver, they come in different sizes although I believe one size is all you need. I don't recommend using the phillips head more than absolutely necessary. You can ruin the screw and the driver. If you can't get one out, I believe most RV parts stores will have the correct driver for you.

These are removed with "clutch bits" #2. Your hardware store will likely have them.

We just finished removing our cabinets on our 1973. My wife painted them white. They turned out great. We rehung them with the same screw as they are they are the correct length.

Jim

Barths vary, but all my interior screws are square (Robertson) drive. They have a square recess in the middle of a phillips hole. Some of them have just the square hole.

The only clutch head screws on my coach are mounting the exterior grab handle. They have a recess that looks like a bow tie, or two pie slices touching at the points.

http://www.skywaytools.com/Clutchhead.html

A picture of your screw might help us or the hardware store help you.

Odds are those are Robertson screws, common to the RV & boating world. Their advantage over Phillips head screws is the square drive is less likely to slip. & chew up the hole so badly you can't get it out. The combination square hole with notches for a Phillips drive works best with a square driver. Don't ask me how I know.

Be sure you use the correct size driver. If it's too big it won't fit. If it's too small you'll chew up the hole. Your local hardware store has bits, but probably not drivers with handles.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
Odds are those are Robertson screws, common to the RV & boating world. Their advantage over Phillips head screws is the square drive is less likely to slip. & chew up the hole so badly you can't get it out.

I find the best feature of the Robertson is the ability of the screw to stay on the tip when installing the screw. The advantage of magnetism is lost on brass screws.

My favorite screw recess is hex. It has better grip than other head designs and will stay on the tip better than any. Its main advantage, however, is that it can be used with the driver on an angle, if you have a set of ball ended Allen drivers.

Anyone ever used the execrable Tri Wing screws?

May you never. That is the most classic example I have ever seen of engineering ignorance. Surpassing the Chauchat, even. I find it amazing that the same engineering culture that produced that misbegotten abomination could produce such engineering elegance as the Citroen.

And that, folks, is our thread drift for the day.

Also, if anyone has revarnished inside, be very fastidious about removing as much varnish as you can from the screw head recess. I use a jeweler's screwdriver. The Robertson tips have a slight taper, and require penetration to full depth for proper gripping. Anything less then full penetration can result in rounding-out the hole. I like to throw removed brass screws in a little Skydrol or brake fluid before reusing.

Thanks for the prompt responses. I am from Canada and very familiar with Robertson screws, these are not it. I will try and find them on the web and post a picture. I am pretty sure they are "Clutch Bits" as referenced in a previous post. Thanks again.

I tried to post a 1.66 KB .jpg of a clutch head screw recess from "My Documents", and got the following message:

"There was an FTP (file transfer) error. The detail is 'Upload to '/testdir/test.txt' failed. Detail: '552 Transfer aborted. Disk quota exceeded ''."

Any computer literati out there know what I am doing wrong?

I got the same message when rying to upload a .jpg file that as too big (I picked one I hadn't reduced to acceptable size...)

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
I got the same message when rying to upload a .jpg file that as too big (I picked one I hadn't reduced to acceptable size...)

Do you have any luck with a smaller file? My teenie-weenie 1.66 KB file didn't work.

Photobucket finally started working.

Does this drawing of a clutch head screw help?

Bill h is right on the money with his drawing. Thanks. Now I know what I am asking for anyway.

in looking for these, Wikipedia has a great page depicting all of these bits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

bill what an artist
lenny

I don't know about SOB's but Barthers know about Robertson drives I'm sure. I know I've turned hundreds of them.