those little, plastic, drill bit 'centre finders'

Do you have a pic?

Are you referring to a plastic collar that you put onto a drill bit to mark the depth before you drill? If this is so, you slide the collar along the bit to the desired depth, then drill until the collar meets the surface.

Paul

I thought they were for holding the head of a screw on the bit prior to, and during, driving them in? Never actually used one though... (and have had the odd painful finger to prove it!)

Mathew

"Mathew Newton" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I don't think he means them, but if they get discovered from this thread I'll be well pleased; I used them yonks ago, they just sit on the stem of your tweaker out of the way, slide them down and they hold the head so you can start it.

Best little things ever.

Then they totally disappeared :-((

mike

^^^^^^^ is this a technical term?

Perhaps they weren't described very well? :-)

Rob Morley wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:

Thanks for the try, Rob, but not them. Same sort of thing, but a fiver! and only for power drills.

They were little red plastic thingies, a cylinder to slide up the stem and

I'ver been looking for twenty/thirty years, so I've no great hopes...

mike

These things?

I knew what you meant, the one I linked to is the evolved form :-) That price is steep - you can get them for half that, maybe cheaper. You can use it in something like a Stanley Multi-Bit instead of a power driver.

I think that the proliferation of magnetic bits and cross-head screws has rendered them mostly obsolete.

Absolutely! But generally reserved for a small screwdriver, used to "tweak" a potentiometer or ferrite core.

They're for plasterboard screws.

Thanks 'soup' - this is exactly what I meant.

Having established they are meant for plasterboard screws... how exactly does one use them / it?

Many thanks to all.

Keith

Rob Morley wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:

But they worked on nonmagnetic screws, including nylon, and all sorts of heads, even grubscrews!

I just think it's Murphy's law, anything *really* good, *they* abolish

mike

Me too! I've found them it sets of driver bits and never known what on earth they were for.

Dave

Stick the plasticky thing over the screwdriver bit, drive screw into plasterboard - when the plasticky thing comes up against the plasterboard the bit will slip out of the screw head.

I've just bought a pretty naff "250 pcs Power Tool Set" from B&Q, made by Performance. It was only about £16 (reduced from £25) so I figured it's worth it for a few throwaway bits etc.

There are 5 of these widgets inside, labeled "Screw finders". I think one end may fit over the bit holder, the other end has a internal serrated washer, held in place by a spring.