Is it just me

[tobble]

that's anally retentive about aligning the slots in screw heads so they look nice? I don't consider myself a perfectionist but I do tend to line up the screw heads!

A friend was helping out over the weekend and suggested this habbit was evidence of asberger's. Am I alone?

 

[Poignard]

A old boatbuilder once told me that the RNLI insisted on it being done on any boats his firm built for it.

 

[Sans Bateau]

Use Pozidrive or Phillips! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[damo]

It is actually useful on surfaces to be painted or varnished - align slotted screws with the direction of the brush strokes so the paint goes on smoothly. Outside, the slots are vertical so as not to hold water. Otherwise..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tobble]

Can still allign them! and that goes for Hex heads and allen heads too... Sad isn't it /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[pandos]

I am a carpenter and when I was learning my trade I was taught that this was the only way to leave screws.

Nowadays chippies only seem to use pozis or Philips and battery drivers.

 

[absit_omen]

Not as anal as going around the entire boat, removing all brass screws and replacing with silicone bronze, counter sinking or counterboring as necessary. Lining up slots on countersunk ones and plugging (with correct grain pattern) counterbored ones! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Poignard]

Come to think of it, there shouldn't be many screwheads visible on a decent boat. Those used on painted work would be stopped and painted over, and any in varnish work would be hidden by a matching cross-grain pellet.

 

[tobble]

having started this, most of the ones I can think of on mine are really machine screws for bolting deck hardware down. Naturally, all the counterbored (wood)screw heads are plugged with a grain-matched plug... Doesn't make it a "decent boat" tho /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Csail]

I don't care where the screw ends up but my perfection is the torque loading so don't care if its not in line.

 

[NickiCrutchfield]

There is a sound engineering reason why one should not align the heads in structural applications. The screws should be torqued up until they are biting equally and firmly into the piece of wood underneath. The extra half turn or so to align over tightens the screw and begins to tear it from the wood. The over tightened screws become the weakest link. All that said, I would suggest that my response is pretty anal also.

 

[lw395]

So do you overtighten them or slack them off to achieve alignment?
Different matter when theres a nut on the end of course, I do try to align machine screws on cleats for example!

 

[Phill]

After taking my Dad, a trained carpenter and joiner, to a boat show, I asked him which was his favourite boat.
Oh that's easy he said. It's the Riva.
He said it was the only boat he saw that was built by craftsmen. He'd noticed the aluminium rubbing strake was held on with perfectly aligned screws.

Ever since, I've always aligned mine.

 

[tangomoon]

Not as simple as that - you need to 'feel' the correct tension and take the head round closer to inline from there -

If pushed, I would rather be sailing

 

[absit_omen]

You are probably one of those people who doesn't care if a piece of silk snags on the copper roves on your timbers either! Tsk Tsk. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ccscott49]

I always align screws that show and in 99.9% of cases, any screws on my boat are plugged or plugged and painted. I dont believe brass screws have a place on a boat, unless maybe inside, especially when much stronger stainless ones are available, for inside work. No stainless crews on my boat outside, just bronze.

 

[DinghyMan]

Its called soldiering and used to be taught as the standard way to install screws.

The perfectionists way to install screws is to barely countersink the heads so that the bottom of the screwdriver slot is just proud of the surface leaving enough screw to allow you to file & sand the head flush with the surface leaving just a nice smooth brass or bronze circle. Makes them a pig to remove though..

 

[meldrum]

cssails right. Lining up the screw heads is ok in softer timbers but in solid hardwoods its bad practice as it can strain the fastening and split the wood.

 

[jb2008]

What if you've got screws arranged in a circle?

Do the heads all point parallel to one diameter, as radii or tangential?

That'll mess with the heads of the anal folk.. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif