Homemade Thumb Screw & Set Screw Dress Tool

[kmmcrafts]

Well it works but not as great as I thought it would. I think if one used a “locknut” it’d work much better. The issue I have is the screws want to spin to easily. You’d normally only need to sand them very little and could do it by hand normally. I happen to have bought a box of both thumb screws and set screws, and the ends are not flat so it takes much more sanding then just by hand so I made this up to run on my belt sander. 
 

I traced around the nuts and cut it out on the scroll saw. Then used epoxy to glue the nuts into the board ( 1/4” bbply. )  In my case I used 1/4 - 20 nuts. I a storehouse of lock nuts I might try to see if they’ll work. I also have some flat cold rolled stock and a tap that I could go all out on and make a nice one. I’m just playing around with this idea first since most people have scraps of wood and in many cases left over epoxy too. 
 

So far just drilling appropriate sized hole in scrap wood and threading the screws into the wood works best so long as you get them started in straight.

 

[OCtoolguy]

You neglected to tell us what its purpose is. Is from truing up the thumbscrew ends? I've not had to do that yet.

[kmmcrafts]

59 minutes ago, OCtoolguy said:

You neglected to tell us what its purpose is. Is from truing up the thumbscrew ends? I've not had to do that yet.

Yes, I said in the title thumb screw dress tool, some may not know the term dressing tool etc. though. But yeah that's what it is for.. I don't normally do this at all.. screws are real cheap.. a box of them is like $5.. however many of them are not completely flat on the ends. Even the steel ones are fairly quick and easy to just screw into wood and sand it by hand. Due to shortages of almost anything these days.. when I placed a order a couple months ago the only thing that was available was stainless.. they take a lot more sanding to do it by hand.. also take much longer before they need to be redone.. but when they do.. you probably want a belt sander to do it, LOL. also gotta be careful with how tight you turn them if you're heavy handed.. not the greatest mix to use stainless in aluminum.. but so long as you're careful and smart about it you'd be fine..

 

Edit to add: I don't do this at all with the Excalibur or DeWalt saws that have the spin tip on the end. That tip will move wobble around enough to throw off a flat 90 squared end and you can accidently chamfer one side or another and creating more of a problem than you started with. If you have slippage with these many times it's just a wiping on a cloth sprayed with brake parts cleaner or other type of cleaner that isn't oil based.. mineral spirits leaves a film of oil.. I know some use it with results but it's better to use some other type solvent. Most times they just need a good cleaning and also just apply a small amount of Vaseline to the O-ring so the swivel end spins nice and free. A drop of oil on the threads to keep them working smooth too can go a long way with extending the life of not only the screw but also the blade chucks.  

Edited September 21, 2021 by kmmcrafts