drive repair tips?

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "der" == der Mouse <mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca> writes:

 >> Sometimes you'll run into "tamper-resistant Torx" which is regular
 >> torx with a pin in the center of the screw.

 der> I've seen those, though not (so far) in disk drives.

 der> I have an interchangeable-bit screwdriver whose set of bits
 der> includes some three dozen "security" bits of various kinds.  I
 der> don't know the names of most of them, but there are
 der> pin-in-the-middle torx, pin-in-the-middle hexagon ("Allen"),
 der> something I might call a three-bladed Phillips (like a Phillips
 der> but with one vane removed and the remaining three vanes at 120°
 der> from one another), ...

I've seen those used on airliner wings -- 737 perhaps.  Don't know the
name.

 der>  and what I might call
 der> "butterfly" bits - I have no simple unambiguous name for the
 der> shape, but for those who know PostScript or who have a
 der> PostScript interpreter, "250 500 translate 0 -15 moveto 0 0 50
 der> -40 40 arc 0 15 lineto 0 0 50 140 220 arc closepath stroke"
 der> gives a fair idea of it.

Nice description.  I think those are "Clutch" bits.

 der> Plus a bunch of non-"security" bits: regular hexagon (both inch
 der> and metric), square ("Robertson"), Phillips, ordinary flat, and
 der> something which I didn't recognize when I got it but thanks to
 der> an earlier discussion here I now know is called Pozidriv :) -
 der> all in various sizes.

 der> No, finding the screwdrivers is unlikely to be my problem. :)

Sounds like all you're missing is Bristol Spline.  Those seem to be
rather old; the only place I ran into them is in a 1950s vintage
Collins radio (51J-3).  The Xcelite "99" roll pack toolkit has those,
and you can get them separately too.  A Bristol bit looks like a
cylinder with 4 (small sizes) or 6 (larger sizes) square-bottom
fairly narrow grooves cut into them.  So it's very different from Torx
(almost all groove, and round-bottomed) or Allen (hexagon); if you
need to undo a Bristol spline screw, you'll need the real tool.

     paul