18 Aug
2005
18 Aug
'05
12:32 p.m.
Sometimes you'll run into
"tamper-resistant Torx" which is regular
torx with a pin in the center of the screw.
I've seen those, though not (so far) in disk drives.
I have an interchangeable-bit screwdriver whose set of bits includes
some three dozen "security" bits of various kinds. I don't know the
names of most of them, but there are pin-in-the-middle torx,
pin-in-the-middle hexagon ("Allen"), something I might call a
three-bladed Phillips (like a Phillips but with one vane removed and the remaining three vanes at 120=B0 from one another),
"offset" Phillips
(like Phillips with each vane offset to the side by approximately its
I've heard those refered to as Torq.
own thickness), two-point bits (for which the screw
head is solid with
two small holes, one on each side of centre), and what I might call
"butterfly" bits - I have no simple unambiguous name for the shape, but
for those who know PostScript or who have a PostScript interpreter,
"250 500 translate 0 -15 moveto 0 0 50 -40 40 arc 0 15 lineto 0 0 50
140 220 arc closepath stroke" gives a fair idea of it.
The main one you seem to be missing is System Zero. The screw head is
slighlt tapers (so that pliers/vise grips/mole wrenches just slip off),
domed on to, and has 6 notaches round the edge.
And yes I have seen them used in classic computer equipment. For some odd
reason the Ferret EPOROM programmer is assembled with them, I've also
seen them in modems.
-tony