Manufacturer of the world's most secure fasteners

Out In The Shop

May 08, 2014

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Often our tooling requires grinding to tolerances in the millionths. Ruben has been with us for over 10 years and is an expert at precisely ground tooling. He’s the guy who figured out the tooling for our 0-80 keyed lock miniature security screws. Standard security screws don’t go that small, much less keyed lock ones. We figured out another solution along with this; how to keep these little screws from falling off the screwdriver.

Joe is working on an M8 Button Head Key-Rex stainless steel screw for an overseas customer. It ran well only because he made the tooling line up perfectly. The set up was “on point”, he said. He’s an Afghanistan vet who really knows what that means. Our parts occasionally give us problems. The last job had all of us scratching our heads. The set up took 4 days, when it should have taken 4 hours. It was a good lesson for us all. Being set up “on point” is a must.

Juan is one the best there is at “figuring it out.” Here he is making a fixture to precisely grind a slot in the bottom of a set screw (not the top). The customer needed 4,000 now, and we didn’t have time (or profit) to mill. He got it done quickly and precisely. Everyone needs someone who can just “figure it out,"Juan is our man.

Setting up machines to make keyed lock security screws is more of an art than an exact process. Our accomplishments aren't because we buy state of the art machines and have a lot of man power. It's more of a reflection of the character of the machinists I (Bryce) have working for me; diligent, precise, and with the talent to figure it out.

tolerances in the millionths

miniature security screws

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