A Decent Screw!

[Mary Fisher]

A fuse ...

Mary

[mlv]

I can!

Thanks Dot, they have the metric equivalent of #12 x 2.1/2" (5.5 x 65mm). Mind you, they haven't replied to my e-mail asking for confirmation that these screws are the traditional style woodscrew.

Chris - A2A4's search engine is not too hot and it don't cross-reference common names/descriptors.

Search for 'wood screws' and you'll get lots of hits. Search for 'woodscrews' and you'll get none.

Similarly, search for 'countersunk' or 'c/sunk' and you'll get no hits. Search for 'CSK' and you'll get loads.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In the army during WW2, they put stuff in the tea to lower your sex urge.

Think it's started to work.

[Ed Sirett]

Thanks I didn't know I'd forgotten about them. c. AD 1965

[Ed Sirett]

Clearly from the number of people whose memory was awoken to the "compass in the heel shoe". There must be a lot of us in the 45-50 range.

[Brian Sharrock]

IMHO; there's another group as well; too old to have had 'compass' shoes bought for them. In fact your mother needed ration-coupons to purchase any clothes for kids, and the only people that might have had a compass in their heels were German spies - who we read how to identify in the Wizard and Hotspur.

[Mary Fisher]

There was nothing like that in Dandy.

And I can't think that I'd have been interested in compass shoes. A compass is an easy thing to carry about, I had one but didn't use it. Still have and still don't. All that romantic stuff about finding one's way with bits of bent twig left me cold.

But so did all that jumping about and turning heels of socks we girlies had to do in Brownies.

However, I have the last laugh, I'm frequently asked to give talks to the Old Guides groups, I've just been booked for November 2005 for the Trefoil Club (or something). They didn't give me compass bearings, just where in relation to the brewery in Tadcaster I had to go.

I'm sure I'll find it :-)

Mary

[usenet]

Oh, I expected to be able to 'browse' to the wood screws if you see what I mean. I very rarely use site search engines as they're often (as you say) rubbish. I just browsed through the links on their site and none of them took me to wood screws.

In fact even armed with your help (i.e. search for 'wood screws') it's still well nigh impossible to find anything useful. 251 'hits' and no easy way to look through them. I want to be able to go to a type of screw and then get what I want rather than have to try and guess a search string that will find what I want (maybe).

[Paul Mc Cann]

In article , [e-mail] says... snip

.............and the Adventurer with the picture stories front and back. (Rich kids got the glossy Eagle and The Girl). I preferred hardcore solid text front to back myself. Better value, though I always snuck a sly read of the sisters copies of Girls Crystal and the Schoolfriend

[Mary Fisher]

Girl and Eagle came in when I was older, I thought they were both cissy.

When I started 'going out' with Spouse I was astonished that they got Schoolfriend (I think it was) weekly - the three brothers (oldest 26) fought over it ...

Mary

[Lobster]

Hey, do you know how much the Dandy costs now?

£1.20!! That's how much.

One pound four shillings! For ONE copy!

It's gone all PC since my day too - instead of Beryl The Peril baiting her parents et al, you now get a Rastafarian kid detective called Dreadlock Holmes (geddit?) who does Good Deeds. And Desperate Dan's gun has now vanished, instead he has a little brown pouch on his belt from which I'm sure he will eventually produce a mobile phone, once the readers have forgotten it was supposed to contain a Colt .45. And of course he isn't ever allowed to play with kids any more - unhealthy, you know... And, the comic's filled with adverts for more and more goddamned electronic games, blah blah blah.

[Mary Fisher]

I know that the Beano is well over £1, a son in law has a stack in the bathroom.

Not that I ever look at it of course ... it's not what it used to be.

Oops!

Mary

[Lobster]

Actually last week's copy cost me £0.70 (maybe it's dearer round your neck of the woods!)

(I'm not an afficionado BTW, just that my two sons get Beano and Dandy respectively. Honest.)

David

[Mary Fisher]

Oh! I'm wrong then. Sorry.

It's not in my neck of the woods, it's in Wales, but the price is on the cover so it must be universal.

Of course. We'd never waste our time even glancing at them ...

Mary

[raden]

In message , Brian Sharrock writes

You mean the ones who refused to buy them for us ? (well until worn down in a war of attrition )

[Mary Fisher]

I could never wear down my parents.

Our children could never wear us down.

Of eight grandchildren five can wear down their parents.

None of them can wear us down - but they still keep trying.

Mary

[mlv]

Yes, so did I. I resorted to the search engine when I couldn't find a link to wood screws (or woodscrews!).

The search engine is a bit primitive and it doesn't seem to accept wildcards. However, once you have found 'wood screws', you can refine your search by referring to the terminology used, e.g. CSK = Countersunk, RSD = Raised Head, 5.5M X 65M = 5.5mm dia. x 65mm long, etc. I guess the 'M' stands for Metric.

I found my No.12 x 2.1/2" c/sunk woods screws by using the search strings 'wood screw 5.5M CSK' and 'wood screw NO 12 CSK'. I then scrolled through the 30 or so hits to find the (metric) length I required.

[Nigel M]

I've never had a problem, just use a good plug (e.g. Rawlplug or Fischer) and the maximum size of screw that the fitting will take.

Alternatively, use a ready made fixing, with screw and plug.

[mlv]

I still maintain that the traditional design wood screw, with its gradual, full-length taper and full diameter shank cannot be beaten for use with wall plugs.

It is the continuous, uniform expansion of the wall plug caused by the 'wedge-effect' of the slow taper that gives the secure fixing.

And Unifix wallplugs are, IMHO, amongst the best (just remember to push them a few mm below the surface).

These fancy modern screws, with their reduced shanks and deep, sharp threads, just seem inferior and prone to stripping the centre out of the wall plug, especially those horrid, modern, grey plastic plugs.

Guess that makes me a Luddite :-)

[Mary Fisher]

There are still many of us who agree with you.

Mary