Toolsets for those tiny screws

[senderoaburrido]

Where can I get tools to screw in the fixture for shutter releases, and things like that? I've purchased two camera screwdriver kits online that were still not fine enough to deal with the screws on the bodies of shutters. I'm wondering if there's some nomenclature I'm missing in my keywords for searches.

[Leigh]

You'll find any hand tools you might need at McMaster-Carr Supply Co. www.mcmaster.com
They take pride in offering quality tools and materials. The company's been around over 100 years.

A more specialized vendor is Micro-Tools, run by Kurt Fargo whom I know. www.micro-tools.com
It has been the go-to supplier for the photo repair industry for a long time.

- Leigh

[senderoaburrido]

You'll find any hand tools you might need at McMaster-Carr Supply Co. www.mcmaster.com
They take pride in offering quality tools and materials. The company's been around over 100 years.

A more specialized vendor is Micro-Tools, run by Kurt Fargo whom I know. www.micro-tools.com
It has been the go-to supplier for the photo repair industry for a long time.

- Leigh

Thanks! Does anyone know what the size is for the screws on Copal shutters? I'm looking at McMaster-Carr and the screwdrivers come in specific sizes.

[Leigh]

I would recommend buying a set of small ones, from the smallest available up to perhaps 1/8" diameter.

Whatever you look at now, a future victim will be a different size.

On the McMaster home page, type "miniature screwdriver sets" (without the quotes) into the search box at upper left.
There are a number of products available around $25 per set.

- Leigh

[LabRat]

I would recommend buying a set of small ones, from the smallest available up to perhaps 1/8" diameter.

Whatever you look at now, a future victim will be a different size.

On the McMaster home page, type "miniature screwdriver sets" (without the quotes) into the search box at upper left.
There are a number of products available around $25 per set.

- Leigh

A great inexpensive set of screwdrivers are from Wiha (Germany)... They have slightly larger plastic handles that has a better grip/torque, use good steel, and the tips fit photo gear well... I got a set from Fry's electronics on sale for about $17 (then), and liked them so much, I ran back to buy another set... (At first glance they look look like cheap quality, but are VERY well engineered!!!)

I own many of the Euro watchmaker's grade tools, but I always seem to use the Wiha's as my "go-to" set... :-)

Stay away from the tools with interchangeable tips, as even the good ones will sometimes rotate the tips in the handle when under torque... :-(

Steve K

[Leigh]

Wiha tools are very high quality. I have many of them.

- Leigh

[BrianShaw]

Sometimes one must get out the oils tones and modify a screwdriver to properly fit.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I don't know how I would cope without one of these.
Ace hardware in the scale model section.

155809

[Jim Jones]

I don't know how I would cope without one of these.
Ace hardware in the scale model section.

155809

A speck of grease in the screw's slot may work in the absence of the right tool.

[Drew Wiley]

Any hobby shop or serious hardware store will have what you need, plus electronics stores which cater to the solder gun crowd. I second Wiha as a good brand,
as well as McMaster as a convenient source. In a pinch you can simply grind down the tip of an ordinary screwdriver.

[senderoaburrido]

Any hobby shop or serious hardware store will have what you need, plus electronics stores which cater to the solder gun crowd. I second Wiha as a good brand,
as well as McMaster as a convenient source. In a pinch you can simply grind down the tip of an ordinary screwdriver.

This is good to know. Just with a normal file? I don't have access to a workshop.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah. But it's a good idea just to have a basic set of miniature "jeweler's screwdrivers" for various camera predicaments. The second most important thing to have
around is a little cup or jar lid. Setting down one of those tiny screws and having it roll off a surface, then trying to find it afterwards somewhere on a floor or rug
can be the very definition of Purgatory.

[barnacle]

One tip - *don't* buy the cheap kits with five or six in. They are almost always rubbish - we have one set (bought in error) at work and one the drivers doesn't even have a blade on it - just the shaft.

On the other hand, the set I bought from RS in the eighties is still going strong...

Neil

[el french]

In a pinch you can simply grind down the tip of an ordinary screwdriver.

When you do this make sure the flats are parallel and are a tight fit in the screw slot.

[Jac@stafford.net]

When you do this make sure the flats are parallel and are a tight fit in the screw slot.

I'm glad you wrote that. The blade should FIT, not just slop around, lean against the sides. I have ground a few blades and under magnification they suck. With all the tools I have is also a set of gun screwdrivers (made in my hometown) to fit some unusual fasteners. They don't fit many, they the ones they do fit work perfectly. I don't believe in saving money on precision tools.
.

[Drew Wiley]

Try explaining to the younger generation why you don't use a phillips bit in a posidrive screw.

[Leigh]

Try explaining to the younger generation why you don't use a phillips bit in a posidrive screw.
Neither do you use a Phillips bit in a crosspoint screw.

Screws of that style in cameras are ?always? crosspoint.

- Leigh

[Vaughn]

Try explaining to the younger generation why you don't use a phillips bit in a posidrive screw.
Heck...I had to look it up!

[Jody_S]

This is good to know. Just with a normal file? I don't have access to a workshop.

I keep a jeweler's file on my bench for this purpose. It is best to avoid power tools as any heat buildup can ruin the temper of the steel, requiring a re-hardening. That being said, I've been known to use a Dremel rotary tool for the initial shaping (dip the bit in water frequently as you work).

[Tin Can]

Try explaining to the younger generation why you don't use a phillips bit in a posidrive screw.

First day in a 5 day Delco Carburetor class 1978, at GM Training center the damn instructor, holds up new latest GM carb and then says, I don't have Pozidrive screwdrivers for this carb so we cannot investigate it. Then went on blathering about baloney. We all were working professional dealer level mechanics and I wasn't happy. Sound familiar? That night I went to Kenosha, home of Snap-On and got a new sert of expensive positive screwdrivers. Obviously I showed up with them the next at the training center and said let's look inside that darn thing. Not the first time I battled with an instructor. We took it apart. I forget why it was special.

The 5 day class was a waste of time, the reward was the unobtainable Delco Master Parts book for all Delco carburetors back to the 20's and to the present. It was 8" thick!

The book was important to have, I tossed it long ago. Thank goodness for fuel injection, it saved everybody, but costs more.

The next lecture I stopped was transmissions and the instructor was teaching wrong math. I stopped that and became a fellow instructor on the spot. The story gets crazier...Ever hear of CETA? LOL.

Since 16 I have collected tools, still have them all. DIY is not new. Buy good tools. Keep them. But everybody here knows that...

[Drew Wiley]

Well, frankly I'm sick of good tools. Got enough of my own to last the duration of personal projects, including darkroom and remodeling, and am now trying to transition some of my knowledge to the my younger day job replacements. But they're enthusiastic to keep the tradition going and keep us as the West Coast
epicenter of the good gear, at least as far as residential construction, cabinetmakers, art furniture, and marine use goes. No Trump Towers types - can't trust em
to pay. In other words, we don't even want any big developers shopping here; but it doesn't really matter much, since they don't want good tools either! Need to save their overhead money for bribing building inspectors and zoning officials. I do sell some Starrett here, along with a limited amount of German hand tools, plus all the usual disposable, theftable jobsite junk, but not enough to attract pesky ole woodshop tire-kickers, like I'm starting to resemble! Saving my own money for a Speedmat mat cutter. Those are a lot easier on the ole fingers than my ole linear Logan matcutter.

[Tin Can]

What's sick is how hand tools are worth nearly nothing in resale.

It's why I have all my tools, absolutely no point in selling them.

When I throw out crappy speciality iron, another resident grabs the shit I throw out, and brings it back in the packed workshop. I want the scrap collectors to take it. I put in the alley morning M-F and it's gone in 2 hours. The scrappers are honest workers, self employed and never steal. Sometimes I buy stuff off their trucks!

Power tools and shop tools are different. We once dug out 20 car lifts from a closed dealership, sold 16, kept 4 and installed them in our shop. We only trust lifts we inspect and install. One guy I knew killed his wife, by having her sit under the lift to stay out of the way. He tampered, she died, he was never charged.

[Drew Wiley]

Prior to this gig (which has itself lasted over 40 years), I was selling lots of tools and misc to car dealers and machinists. That whole auto business was rotten to
the core, just like it still is. Out of over fifty local dealerships, there was only one that had an honest service dept. Doubt there is even one now. Yeah, you can get routine warranty service, but that's all those alleged mechanics know how to do, limited specific tasks, and cars still have all kind of engineered flaws in them to keep the service depts fat. We have our cars done by a friend who quit his engineering job at Bayer because he was so frustrated finding a competent honest mechanic himself, so went to the trouble of designing his own diagnostic equipment. Since I sell piles of German power tools, and even German hand tools, I can vouch that they know how to precisely do things. In other words, they can routinely produce auto components designed to fail exactly fifteen miles or fifteen minutes after you warranty expires! And somehow this fellow has gotten those codes for Benz and Beamer, so can preemptively replace those parts at
a fraction of the cost of dealers doing it, as part of routine maintenance. I kept all my own hand tools from that era, along with inheriting quite a few, and these
have come in extremely handy in terms of my personal darkroom inventions over the years.

[Jmarmck]

Put a thick cloth like a towel on your work bench. That way the screws and parts will not bounce around on a hard surface.