The Phillips vs Flathead Dilema

[WA1GFZ]

Bob,
I think it is called an apex head. I remember building up sidewinders and mavricks using those secews to hold section joints.

Have you been over to Niantic River. The state fixed it up real nice. My brother and I took my Dad fishing there yesterday. We used to go as kids and sit on the rocks.
It was great until the two legged pigs showed up with la bomba at 100dB. It was so nice having my son step over a freshly used rubber to get in the truck tossed from the van next to us.

[W1RKW]

Hey Frank,
I haven't been down to Niantic to walk around since they put the boardwalk in.  I do go by there each weekend but have never stopped to look at what they did down there.  I've heard that it's pretty nice.  A guy that I work with (the tech I mentioned in my previous post) lives near there and walks down there a lot.  He likes it alot.

Too bad the two legged pigs and latex litter put a damper on your afternoon.  I never ceases to amaze me the human trash we have around here.  The unfortunate thing is if we did the same thing right in their front yard (if they're lucky to have one) or flung one on their porch it wouldn't make a damn bit a difference to them.  These people are worse than than the disgusting insects I have around here as far as I'm concerned.

Did you guys catch anything?  I haven't been fishing in about 5 years.  Just bought my fishing license to do a little fly fishing this year on the Salmon River here in town. I've been itching to get a line wet for some time.  Also need to do a little saltwater fishing too. I miss being out on the ocean.  Have been contemplating on buying a boat to get out on the sound and do some striped bass and bluefish fishing.

OK on the apex screws.  I know one thing they go in easy but are a bitch coming out.  They're used once then tossed and a new one goes in to replace it.  They never reuse them.  I'm not sure why that is but that's what they do. It may have something with the sealant they put on the threads and the difficulty they have removing them or the screw probably gets stressed upon removal and they don't want to risk having it break prematurely in a combat situation. That's my guess.

I don't know if anyone has done this in the event of a stripped screw head or not but I've stripped my share of screw heads in the past.  One thing I do if the room permits is to grab the head of the screw with a nice sharp pair of diagonal cutters to crack the screw.  The other option I take is to use a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel and carefully grind a slot into it and use a slotted screwdriver to crack it.  You don't want to go to deep otherwise you'll break off a piece of the screwhead then you'll be in deeper doo-doo.  Again, that all depends on the room you have.  Of course, Murphy will cause a screw to get stripped in the tightest places then either option doesn't work.

[K1JJ]

I didn't know you guys use to go to Niantic. As a JN my family would spend Sunday afternoons on the "beach" and my dad and I would fish off the dock for blackfish.  The train would go over that old black monster moving bridge and we'd stand under it scared.  The Mijoy was the big log fishing boat at the time.

I've been there a few times since and saw the rotted-out boardwalk and also saw the beginnings of the new. I must pay a visit again.

The last time I fished in a boat in the area there was absolutely no fish. They say the nuclear plant's hot water killed off the young fish and cleaned the area out. I dunno. Is there still flounder, blacks and stripers there?  If so, I might go down during high tide and try my luck off the boardwalk. 

T

[W1RKW]

Tom,
I couldn't avoid Niantic.  I grew up and lived in Waterford and the shore was my life line.  When I had my boat years ago occasionally I'd go to the discharge area of Millstone and catch bluefish without much trouble. Millstones discharge was on the Waterford side.  The inlets to the cooling side of the plant are on the Niantic side so the water temp on that side never changed. I'm sure there was some ecological changes when the warmer waters hit the shore on the Waterford side but I never had any trouble catching something there. There was a kill in the Niantic side several years back that affected flounder, scallops and an bunch of other species and it was determined that the plant wasn't the cause but chemicals, sewage and other run off from the Niantic river and it's tributaries had apparently attributed to it. The Niantic bay is slowly recovering.  A friend of mine and his father who run the Sunbeam Express Fishing Charter service in Waterford have started a scallop breeding business to not only sell native scallops to the public but also to reseed the bay for those who want to scallop. So far things are working out and bay is recovering. As long as inland pollution is kept at bay that area should recover nicely.

I remember one day a couple of friends and I were at restaurant across from the Mijoy and just before the Mijoy got underway some guy decided to throw a line over the side of the boat and hauled up one of the biggest strippers I've ever seen.

Most of the time I'd go out far or fish in Fishers Island Sound especially in the Mumford Cove area in and around Groton. I've done shore fishing off the rocks off of Ocean beach with much success too, blues and strippers using artificial baits.  When I would go out deep into the sound I'd use mackeral with a weight and go low.  I'd usually hit some pretty big blues that would put up a big fight.  I had one blue one time that took me nearly 10 minutes to bring in.  My arms were so tired afterwords but it was one of the biggest blues I pulled in.  Alot of the shore fishing in that area is dependant on tides, air temp, wind and time of day.

With that said, a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.

[WA1GFZ]

Tom,
They replaced the old board walk. My dad used to take us fishing there every summer. Yup that was a lot of fun to watch the bridges open and close.
Some years we were lucky and some not but still it was something to do. My brother and I would dig sand worms at low tide so we could go more often. My Dad loves to fish and he never cared much if he caught anything.
It is beautiful there now. My son was sitting on a floating dock with his feet in the water holding his fishing pole.
The tide was just starting to come in so we were a bit early. Then it got kind of hot so we headed back to my place for a big bowl of ice cream.
Just as we were leaving a guy pulled in a small striper. We were told the best place to fish was in the channel under the new bridge...the spot the fish was caught.
just like the old bridge. Nothing like sitting in the shade of that old bridge.
There is a cool old picture in the town hall that shows stairs up to the tracks so you could walk across them. My Dad said it was that way when he was a kid before the first board walk. We lost a lot of hooks in the rocks out by the nuke plant we never caught much out there.
Heading west out of Niantic My street is one east of Rocky Neck and we have no public parking. We usually have a bit of a problem on fourth of July but this year
they are posting State Police at the end of the street. The park fills up fast so people are looking for places to park and drive around the neighborhood looking for spots.
my hunter neighbor tells a funny story about the time he told a couple of guys to get lost and they pulled a gun on him. Harry reached in and grabbed a rifle and asked what's next. He is a very good neighbor and set me up with the 3 contractors I used. Stop by if you guys are ever around.

[WBear2GCR]

Square heads are standard on "Pre-Fabricated Homes" - Mobile Homes.

As far as stripping a Phillips, you won't normally strip one if you use the proper sized driver - which is usually the largest one that will fit into the slots. Not that little skinny one! 

I carry around a nifty little driver I got at a "bargain store" a few years back, it has two flippable 1/4" driver sides with a double sided phillips bit on one side and a double sided flat on the other - been really handy to have in my bag so many times I can't count. The other thing I carry is this submini "Leatherman" tool. It's only 2.5" long folded, but it works.

What really bugs me is the Bristol spline set screws on this darn Collins built R-388!! 

                      _-_-WBear2GCR

[John Holotko]

Hey John,

Some years back there was an article in the paper about just what your inquiring about.  The bottom line was GREMLINS.  Why is it that when your'e looking for that ball of string in the kitchen junk drawer all you find is the roll of tape?  How come when you need the hammer, the pliers appears, but when you need the pliers, there's the hammer?  The answer is GREMLINS.  They're the ones that do all the switching around, just to piss us off.

Right now I'm trying to find that article about the gremlins, but the one on bigger petunias keeps popping up  .

vH

   I tend to agree  with the GREMLIN hypothesis. It's those same Gremlins that like to hang around when you're working on a project. You put something down for a second and they grab it and hide it. Then they stand in the shadows laughing as we spend the next half hour or more trying to find it again. Of course their favorite games are hide "the phillips or flathead" or "hide the pliers or hammers". 

[k4kyv]

What really bugs me is the Bristol spline set screws on this darn Collins built R-388!!

They are superior to Allen screws, but it is hard to find Bristo drivers.

[WA3VJB]

I've fixed all the Bristos on all my R390 and R390A.

One good smack on the end of an Allen/hex key, and it seats nicely from then on.

[w1guh]

What, exactly, are phillips head screws good for, anyway?  And why do they keep using them, given all the problems?

Speaking of stalls...most stalls I've done my reading in lately have had those "can't unscrew 'em" type of screws.  Do vandals really like to take stalls apart?

And another mystery for the ages.  Ever notice how many stall coathooks are broken?  I can almost understand that in a public place...but a lot of coathooks at work have been busted.  Is there something sinister or threatening about a coat hook that makes people go crazy?

[KB2WIG]

... See the movie "Midnight Run"...... klc