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Quailane

Torx Screws? Titanium Screws?

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I have a lot of trouble with screws. A LOT. It doesn't matter whether it is grade 12.9 or whatever, I tend to strip them. I bought good hex tools, which helps, but I still strip some. I noticed that uncoated high grade steel screws are the best, but they rust. Also have to use some lubricant. I have used titanium screws before once in a TT02 build 3 years ago. I took that car apart last week and I noticed that 90%+ of the screws looked brand new and were re-usable. That car had taken quite a beating. It got me thinking about titanium again. I could only find titanium grade 2 screws, which are about half as strong as grade 12.9 steel bolts, but they should be fine. But the real kicker now is that I found out that you can buy these screws in torx varieties, which should help prevent stripping. I have ordered enough screws for three XV-01's. A Yeah Racing titanium kit, and I counted the screws needed and ordered 2 car's worth of torx screws. Does anyone have any experience with them?

I think a main problem I had with the grade 12.9 bolts I bought was the coatings on them. These were the weak point and if the coating rubbed off in the hex hole, then the screw was toast. It doesn't matter how strong the steel is if the coating is weak. I have good luck with flat black steel hex screws, but they tend to rust.

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Yes with jis Tamiya screw driver set I've never had an issue, ever!

 

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Which hex tools did you buy? I have arrowmax purple and haven't had any problems. I have stripped a few but either know how i did it (not paying attention with a cordless driver) or there was a lot of use (on the race cars, some screws come out every meet which is unusual for rc cars). I have only ever had one which was so bad i had to cut a slot in it and that was absent-minded use of a cordless screwdriver.

Mine are either kit screws, titanium or my generic uncoated 10.9 or 12.9 steel. I avoid stainless and titanium generic screws as its hard to know what you are getting. I know what you mean about the rust though, its not pretty

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1 hour ago, Butler said:

Do you use Philips or JIS screw drivers?

Oops. I completely forgot about JIS. I have never owned a JIS screw driver. Maybe I should buy a good one. When I install screws in a model, I only use hex screws unless I bought the model used. In that case I keep the self-tapping screws or used new self tapping screws and I always used a Philips driver with those. Those usually don't give me much issues though.

1 hour ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Which hex tools did you buy? I have arrowmax purple and haven't had any problems. I have stripped a few but either know how i did it (not paying attention with a cordless driver) or there was a lot of use (on the race cars, some screws come out every meet which is unusual for rc cars). I have only ever had one which was so bad i had to cut a slot in it and that was absent-minded use of a cordless screwdriver.

Mine are either kit screws, titanium or my generic uncoated 10.9 or 12.9 steel. I avoid stainless and titanium generic screws as its hard to know what you are getting. I know what you mean about the rust though, its not pretty

The hex tools I bought include two with high quality hardened steel machined heads. One is a T wrench with three identical ends, and another is a 1/4" socket. I'm thinking about a couple of things that were problems. About half of the time I have an issue, it is because a hex screw is screwed into a metal part and not plastic. I think I cranked down too hard and didn't use any grease. Then later the steel screw was stuck in the aluminum. I then had to use a dremel to cut a notch and use a big flat head screw driver to remove the screw, or sometimes go to even greater lengths to rescue the other parts. The other times maybe the screw was tightened too much to begin with. With a socket wrench maybe I got a little crazy. I didn't think I did, at the time, but in hindsight maybe I did.

A couple of other problems I have had may be due to the screw quality. I was buying grade 12.9 screws with silver, black, and gold finished on them. The finishes were definitely not as strong as the rest of the screw and in the hole where the hex driver is inserted, that could be a problem. I have also bought stainless steel screws and they were terrible. It was simply too easy to round our the hex hole or even shear the top of the screw off. From memory, the best hex screws were always matte black, but for me they always seem to get rusty even when they don't come into contact with water.

Now I'm thinking to by a new 1/4" torque wrench. I have already ordered T8 and T10 1/4" sockets and also the tamiya M3 thread forming tap.

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Maybe worth trying rc specific tools. I have read that the mainstream tool manufacturers don't use the best materials on the small hex tools as their customers don't use them (they want big sizes and occassionally use the tiny ones we use) so you need to buy the RC specific brands like MIP, Hudy and Arrowmax.

I have found the same thing, the matte black ones rust (surface only, just doesn't look good) but work well. Others are hit and miss

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3 hours ago, Quailane said:

Oops. I completely forgot about JIS. I have never owned a JIS screw driver. Maybe I should buy a good one. When I install screws in a model, I only use hex screws unless I bought the model used. In that case I keep the self-tapping screws or used new self tapping screws and I always used a Philips driver with those. Those usually don't give me much issues though.

Oh, I thought in your original post you were having troubles with stripping screws. Either way get a JIS driver for Tamiya screws and you'll be fine. I struggled for years with a Philips screw driver. JIS made a huge difference, not surprisingly as they are JIS screws.

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I am so happy with black coatet 10.5 hex from ali in china. :ph34r:

But tools really matter.

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For those who might read this years down the road, JIS is "Japanese Industrial Standard."  

Tamiya screws are JIS screws.  Phillips does not fit well.  (German "Wiha" fit, so it would depend on your country and brand)  

ftBQ5pP.jpg

If your phillips tend to jump out of screw heads, you can get a JIS screw for $9 at Amazon. (Vessel is a Japanese brand. But they don't have "V" sound, so I don't know how they pronounce it in Japanese...but I digress...)

esRcwyI.jpg

Or you can invest about $25 for a Tamiya set. 

T8PahhH.jpg

I think "Arrowmax" @Jonathon Gillham mentioned provides better hex drivers than Tamiya stuff.  @Wooders28 recommended last year. They have been serving me very well. 

Compared to regular steel drivers, these stainless hex drivers are much stronger too. (The black one isn't Tamiya, though)  

yQkiqV8.jpg

For the price of Tamiya set, getting a Vessel and Arrowmax bits worked out for me.   

For smaller 2mm screws, "Wiha 261" fits better than Tamiya 'small' JIS, for some reason. 

It grabs slightly bigger screws, and slightly smaller screws than Tamiya 'small' could do.   

OpuK10w.jpg

 

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Titanium is softer than stainless steel. They'd be specified more for weight not strength... ditto aluminium screws, but they're softer than butter. Ti screws make lovely bright white sparks when scraping the ground though!! :) 

Black steel is usually hi-tensile but yeah they'd rust.

 

I buy M3 & M4 hex screws usually in 304 or 316 stainless, works fine for RC usage. Use good tools and learn not to overtighten, doesn't need that much muscle to fasten RC toys together.

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I’ve spent some time this evening with the thread forming tap and the torx screws. I’m very happy with the way everything is working. 

90408D3E-B532-4C20-9373-FC88039A820A.jpeg

1F5235D5-75AE-4F76-A7F6-7742219B0930.jpeg

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11 hours ago, CoolHands said:

Weren’t they mega expensive though? Where’d you get them from?

For an XV-01 it came out to be about half the price of the Yeah Racing titanium screw kit for the same car. I bought them online from China. I had to go through he manual and count all of the screws, but forgot about the different screws used by the various hop ups. Good thing I ordered extras! Also got titanium nuts and washers. Only problems were that the maximum length I could find was 20mm per screw and the smaller M2 screws Seem to have a thread pitch that looks to be too fine for me to feel comfortable using.

EDIT: I just checked, and grade 5 titanium screws are very expensive. Grade 2 screws are 1/4 the price and I can’t even find grade 5 torx screws. 

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