Square Headed Screw Supplier

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

Hi

Does anyone know where I can buy some M5 x 25mm or 20mm long square headed set screws please, these are to fit some quick change toolposts I am making.

Thanks

Phil

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

[SaxalbyParticipant @saxalby]

Phil,

Rotagrip sell spare square headed set screws for the Dixon tool holders.

Barry

[SaxalbyParticipant @saxalby]

Phil,

Rotagrip sell spare square headed set screws for the Dixon tool holders.

Barry

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

Hi Barry

Thanks for the info, but they do not seem to do M5 ones, or if they do I could not see them.

I thought the prices were for a pack of 10, but it seems they are the price each !!, so I am not too worried that they don't have what I need.

I will have to keep searching, I know they are available somewhere, because they are used on the small "Multifix" cloned toolposts.

Cheers

Phil

[SaxalbyParticipant @saxalby]

Phil,

When I made a few QC Tool holders I made the set screws from some square steel bar turned down and threaded.

Barry

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

I'm pretty sure I got some from a UK supplier of spares for multifix but they were not cheap.

However create tools in China do the cloned multifix tool posts. There is a thread on here with contact details for Nina Wang who was very helpful in supplying tools. There was no problem buying from China so drop them a line.

Regards Mick

[elanmanParticipant @elanman]

When I needed some for my new tool holders I made them out of coach bolts.

Cheers

John

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

One US supplier here

Typical far eastern supplier but probably need to buy qty

I'd just get the spin indexer out.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Do they HAVE to be square ? The toolpost on my machine uses hex socket head screws.

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Have a look at

http://www.nssocketscrews.com/index.php/html/standard/square-head-set-screws

This gives relevant DIN standards, which are useful as search terms.

Long time ago, I bought M8 ones from Nu-Screw in Neasdon, about £40 per hundred, but I cannot find their website any longer.

What is wrong with dog point hex. grubscrews in your application? I like them better than traditional sqaure head as they are cheap, you can pick a length to suit the tool being clamped so they do not poke up so much that swarf wraps around them.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Most will need turning at the holding end, so not a great deal of extra work to make them – and know they are good.

Socket headed screws (on a job like this) suck – they collect swarf! Only the spanner would get choked up with properly designed screws – and that is unlikely.

Heads need to be a little deeper than most fixings supplied these days so that the spanner will sit on the head without falling off – and that is likely a good reason for a square head.

I made half a dozen hex ones for a job – made from round, so finished with a flange below the head to stop a ring spanner sliding past the head. Took longer, but work just as well. Stevenson’s collet blocks came in very handy for that.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Never found socket heads filling up with swarf to be an issue for me, apart from two holders that I use for one off tooling the rest just stays in the holder and the screws never get touched which is the idea of a QCTP apart from the boring bar ones that may get adjusted for length but that's at the start of the job before the swarf gets produced, just tip upside down when you take them off and swarf will come out the screw heads..

Tee shaped key hex or sq socket means you can spin the screws in and out easier than with a spanner on a square headed screw

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Agree with Jason on that

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

Having now seen how much these square headed screws are going to cost me, the true Yorkshireman instinct has brought me to my senses and I am going to stick with cap heads and just modify the contact end so the thread cannot burr up.

I am now making an additional four toolholders each having three screws, but the seven I already have are currently fitted with cap heads and have been for the last 25 years or so.

33 new square head screws would be very costly, so cap heads all round is the plan, anyway thanks for all the advice guys.

Phil

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

I, personally, don't take off the toolposts very often. Only the tool holders.

Not sure, now, whether we are discussing tool posts or holders.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Holders

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by Phil P on 26/06/2019 22:33:07:

Hi

Does anyone know where I can buy some M5 x 25mm or 20mm long square headed set screws please, these are to fit some quick change toolposts I am making.

Thanks

Phil

Weelll – not according to the above (my emboldening) in the OP.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

But if you read on

"I am now making an additional four toolholders each having three screws"

Also early on Multifix holders were mentioned by the OP, they use square heads on the holder both the set screws for gripping the tool and also the height adjuster, none on the actual toolpost.

Finally you also mentioned them needing machining at "the holding end"

Edited By JasonB on 27/06/2019 14:46:19

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

When I made my four way indexing back toolpost for my lathe, I made the square headed screws to clamp the tools.

Admittedly, they were M10, and 1/2 bar was the ideal material.

The title of the thread, initially, led me to imagine square headed fasteners, more like coach screws, until it became clear that the heads needed to be long for tool clamping screws.

Maybe make your M5 ones from some 1/4 inch round bar, so that you get the short flange just above the end of the thread? You only need to make eight, at most. For a small toolpost, (It will be if it uses M5 screws ) you probably only need 6. So not a major mass production job!

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 29/06/2019 10:17:03

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

I bought my Colchester several years ago at a government auction and my lathe came from a batch of machines from a prison, the Dickson wrenches and the saddle lock spanner were heavily etched with a number ID and all the square headed screws were missing from the Dickson tool holders ,no doubt they were held in secure storage as they may have been useful to the inmates,it cost a fortune to get replacement screws as they were whit or unc . One tip with Dickson tool holders all of mine have 3/8 square heads so I have adapted the 3/8 drive extensions from socket spanner sets , the socket fits over the square screw head and at the other end I have drilled a cross hole to take a silver steel tommy bar to make a T wrench ,a lot quicker to use than the dickson wrench. This T wrench also fits the locking screws for the top slide of my Myford Super 7 and makes access to the right hand screw a lot easier.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

If you look around you can fin cap screws with decent convex ends that don't burr over.

Neil

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Why bother with sq hd screws if they cost so much ? Hex Hd will work just as well.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I wondered why they used square head screws. Must say though that I’ve not had any problems with swarf when using socket screws in my four way.

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Posted by Vic on 29/06/2019 20:10:12:

I wondered why they used square head screws. Must say though that I’ve not had any problems with swarf when using socket screws in my four way.

The (normally four) holes in the holder are so close together that the points of standard hex. screws would clash.

[Author]

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