I have folding pantry doors that glide on a rail. One has fallen completely off the track. The top support for the door is loose. It can be secured by a screw with a square head. Oddly, my standard sized square head drivers (by Black and Decker) do not fit. Could there be a metric set of these square drivers? Or, would the hardware people have bothered to make an odd-sized square headed screw? How can a simple repair become such a pain?
Also, is there any trick of the trade to make a smaller driver fit snug in a larger hole? How about pressing chewed bubble gum into square hole?
While agree it would not be proprietary, these drivers do not seem to come in English units, either…only identified as #1 or S1, #2 or S2, etc. And, while these may stand for some standard English sizes (ultimately)…do these really do have metric equivalents? If so, how would they be marked?
Is the screw completely out? If so, you could take it to your local big box hardware store (if you have one) and show it to them. If not, perhaps a picture would work.
(to explain to the person at the store. Not to actually attach the screw.)
I wish the screw were completely out! Naturally, I would replace it or bring it to the local hardware store. But no, it is just loose enough to cause a problem; yet, not loose enough that I can grip it to remove it.
Ok, after closer examination of the screw head, it is actually a four sided star pattern! This may be hard to picture, but imagine the corners are made “fancy” to make a type of star pattern. Has anyone seen driver heads that mate with this? (Why would they use such uncommon hardware?) I guess I’ll have to try different flathead screwdrivers at an angle to see if I can make a mate. Luckily, the screw is loose enough that I should not burr the head.
Use a pair of needle nose pliers to get the old screw out. It’ll be tedious, but not too bad. Or buy a set of drives. They’re not that expensive, and then you’ll have them for the future.
I just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and suggestions.
I finally got it tight as best as possible after trying different Phillip’s heads to find the best fit. As best I can figure, the head may have been square, but flared out at the corners from being over-torqued leaving a funny star pattern described above. Thanks for thinking this through with me! - Jinx
Was it a Pozidriv head? Getting a Phillips driver to work on a Pozidriv is not uncommon, whereas a square hole getting deformed into a star strikes me as rather unlikely.
I’m wondering if it was a Quadrex. It’s a combination of a Phillips with a Robertson (square). They make a special tool for it, but a Robertson driver will usually work ok on it. A Phillips driver will also work on it to some degree but you won’t get as much grip on it.
