RevolverRob's I hate TORX Rant

[RevolverRob]

I am increasingly convinced that star drive/double square/torx head fasteners are a communist plot designed to infuriate me and break my spirit.

I stripped out, probably the 50th torx fastener in my life time on a, not inexpensive, knife, earlier today. The long and short is, particularly small torx screws (T10 and below) strip with alarming regularity compared to hex/Allen, square head, and especially a good wide and deep slotted head.

Part of this is the bits have a tendency to break, because lots of torque, small surface area. But also the screws themselves are often not properly milled/cast around the bit opening. The tapered nature of the Torx head only exacerbates stripping compared to Phillips, by producing the same camming out effect common when Phillip's strip, but applying it over more, but smaller, surfaces, amplifying the problem.

In short, Torx sucks. And the gun/knife industry has come to rely on it far too much. I'll be grinding a flat slot into a Torx fastener later, with my Dremel. Something I've done far too many times.

Why did this shit standard ever become a thing? The only "benefit" is that the Torx drive doesn't have to be "timed" due to the symmetry of the head. I'd fucking trade that for a fastener that doesn't strip if you look at it wrong any damned day of the week.

I'm going to start buying slotted machine screws to replace every fucking Torx fastener I own.

[AKDoug]

It’s far better than Phillips. I personally have had zero issues with my Benchmades and Spydercos with tiny torx screws.


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[Clusterfrack]

What I really hate are non-metric hex. 5/64”? Fuck that and the horse it rode.

[Snapshot]

Small Torx can be nasty, mainly because you can apply too much torque before having the driver cam out of the head.

In other news: In Canada "square" (properly Robertson) fasteners are very common and when made properly and used with proper tools they are effective and easy to use. But at one point they were not that common anywhere else, having lost out in the U.S. to Philips head for auto company and other big contracts. and to metric hex and Posi-Drive in Europe.

However we use them anyway, and several people have told me what I believe are true stories about using Roberson screws on products being exported, mostly because they were pricks and wanted to frustrate whoever was getting the stuff they were making. To me this seems like a pretty good way to not get the next contract, but what do I know.

[RevolverRob]

What I really hate are non-metric hex. 5/64”? Fuck that and the horse it rode.

Come on man. Inches are superior to millimeters.

Like seriously, you tell someone, "I have a 12" penis" vs. "I have a 304.8mm penis." Same length, different standards, one sounds better.

I concur that Phillips sucks and fractional Hex sucks (less than Phillips or Torx, though).

The correct choice is metric hex, slot, or square.

I'm grumpy RevolverRob and I have spoken. We must say no to the communist plot of Torx.

[Bucky]

The New Jersey gun clubs have pretty much exclusively go onto torques for setting up their stages. Pennsylvania, on the other hand continues to use Phillips head screws. I always stay to help put everything away no matter which club I shoot at. It is far more pleasant to disassemble Torx builtl stages then Phillips head screw stages. Needless to say, I am a fan of TorX built stages.

[eb07]

I usually touch a soldering iron to the head of the torx screw before I remove it for the first time to break any loctite on them. But yeah torx sucks

[Darth_Uno]

Come on man. Inches are superior to millimeters.

Like seriously, you tell someone, "I have a 12" penis" vs. "I have a 304.8mm penis." Same length, different standards, one sounds better.

I concur that Phillips sucks and fractional Hex sucks (less than Phillips or Torx, though).

The correct choice is metric hex, slot, or square.

I'm grumpy RevolverRob and I have spoken. We must say no to the communist plot of Torx.

I get those emails saying if I take these pills I can have a 10" dick. I just wonder why they think I'd want my dick to be 2" shorter.

*ba dum tsss*

Butinallseriousness we strip out way less Torx at work than square or Phillips. And I've stripped out way less scope/RMR/1911 Torx screws than allen heads.

[JRB]

Make sure you're using the correct type Torx bit. there's Torx, Torx plus, and ball-end Torx, and security versions of all three, I believe. Though I can't recall ever seeing a security version of any Torx in the kind of size you'd use on a folding knife.

@JDM was a magnificent bastard and gave me a very nice set of Wiha screwdrivers that included some Torx bits and they fit my various Benchmade, Spyderco, etc knives wonderfully. Haven't tried it on the Chris Reeve yet though because that one just lives in a box :X

[MickAK]

Butinallseriousness we strip out way less Torx at work than square or Phillips. And I've stripped out way less scope/RMR/1911 Torx screws than allen heads.

It's much easier to continue using a slightly undersized Torx bit. You can build a whole deck with the wrong Torx bit. I wouldn't say all of the hate is from people using incorrectly sized or poor quality bits but it's a good chunk.