The Canadians have the right idea, almost everything up there uses the square head screws and they are all the same.
In addition to the six-pointed stars, I once saw a five-pointed star somewhere. Frankly, I don’t know why they care.
Maybe on a fire hydrant valve? That has to be to prevent casual vandalism - an ordinary wrench can’t grip a flat on one side and a point on the other.
This has to be one of the most informative threads I’ve ever read on this board!
Thanks especially to douglips. I think it’s a security Torx (aka Evil Torx). Although the standard Torx screwdriver I bought wouldn’t take it out, I was able to get it out with a standard Torx bit that came with a cordless drill. The bit didn’t get much of a grip but did the trick. The bit may have been cut just a little bit more square at the tip than was the screwdriver letting it enter the screwhead a few thousands of an inch deeeper.
A pipe wrench will work on a fire hydrant pretty easily, as long as the hydrant is well maintained (if it isn’t, a hydrant wrench is going to have a tough time opening it, too). I’ve bent more than my fair share of hydrant wrenches trying to get the caps off of a stuck hydrant. If you twist the operating nut (the one on top) too hard, you can snap the operating stem that works the valve 6 feet below the hydrant…then the water company gets all upset. If anyone cares, this is the requirements for that nut:
There are also “vandal-proof” fire hydrants, used in locations where the neighborhood kids open hydrants on hot summer days. Instead of the pentagonal nut, there is a cross type fitting on the top of the hydrant that requires a special wrench. I haven’t had the chance to use one of those, though. Here’s a picture:
15 or 20 years ago, to change the headlight on my mom’s car, we needed a pentagonal Allen driver (or possibly the 5-point star Chronos mentioned). I imagine it was to keep people from mis-alligning their headlights, but all it meant in practice was we had to go to the store and buy the two-pack of pentagonal drivers.
WHY do bathrooms have one-way screws in them? Am I hopelessly naive and missing some perfectly obvious reason bathroom stalls must be tamperproof? Say you [for whatever reason] wanted to steal bathroom stalls. Wouldn’t that be a pretty cumbersome thing to tuck into your pocket as you casually saunter out the door?
Thank you for any informed responses. This has been a terrific thread!
Hmm… Specifically, the public restrooms where I’ve seen such screws were all on a college campus. Perhaps some fraternities think it’s a funny prank?
The really funny thing about one way screws is that vandals have come up with something even better than turning them lefty loosy. They turn them even more righty tighty until they strip out the hole, then they can remove the door or whatever the Hell else they had intended to do once the screw was removed.
The only place I’ve seen the Evil Torx (I know it’s a security Torx, but Evil Torx is just cool) is on a pay phone, on the part that holds the coins. I always figured there was no way to buy the right screwdriver to get in there.