Micro Fasteners hex-head machine-screw assortment

Hex-head machine-screw assortment
Micro Fasteners
24 Cokesbury Rd., Ste. 2
Lebanon NJ 08833
Price: $25.50
Website: www.microfasteners.com

Machine-screw assortment; various sizes; brass and stainless steel; 20 of each type of screw; packaged in a sturdy plastic compartment box

Pros: Various sizes and lengths of screws at your fingertips; non-ferrous metals won’t rust; several useful sizes for modelers included; most screws are long and can be trimmed shorter if desired; compartment box contains handy, moveable dividers; guide to screws in box lid

Cons: With an assortment, you may never use all of the screws

Micro Fasteners has become a leading light as a supplier of small, hard-to-find fasteners for hobbyists. The company’s catalog is a veritable candy store of bits and pieces for those who enjoy building things. If you use a lot of fasteners in your work, Micro Fasteners offers several assortment boxes of specific types. Here we are examining their hex-head machine-screw assortment.

Machine screws differ from wood screws in several respects. A machine screw is cylindrical in shape and has a squared-off end, where a wood screw is sometimes tapered throughout its length and is always tapered at its end, coming to a point. Threads on machine a screw are closely spaced, and come in standard sizes and pitches. They must be mated with a hole or nut that has matching threads. Wood screws have coarser threads and are self-threading in drilled holes.

A variety of head shapes are available on machine screws, including pan, round, flat, cheese, binder, socket, filister, and hex, to name a few. Our review box holds only hex-head screws, which are popular with modelers because the heads resemble full-size bolt heads.

The container that the screws come in is a sturdy plastic compartment box with moveable dividers. It has a tight fitting, latching lid that will prevent the screws inside from becoming jumbled if the box is shaken or dropped. In the lid is a guide telling you the size and length of the screws in each compartment. All screws are stainless steel unless otherwise noted as brass.

The assortment contains 20 each of 10 different screws, totalling 200. Sizes range from 6-32 x 1″ down to 0-80 x 12″, and includes 4-40, 2-56, and 1-72 screws. The brass screws encompass the smaller sizes—2-56 through 0-80—though stainless 2-56 screws are also included.

The screws themselves are nicely made, with consistent, even threads and slightly rounded corners on the heads. Most are supplied in longer lengths, so can be trimmed if shorter ones are required. While you may never use all of the screws contained in an assortment of this nature, it’s nice to have a variety on hand. When you run out of a size, the compartments in the plastic box are large enough to hold the 100-pack replacements that the company offers.