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Some you win...

Stephen Howard

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Sorting out another Conn 6M at the moment, and saw that I needed seven of those (useless) fiddly little lock screws.
Had kinda resigned myself to having to make them from scratch, which is never a fun job - but just on a whim I decided to have a shuffle through my various draws of 'Assorted and Miscellaneous Screws'.
Went through a handful of drawers and then pulled one out that was labelled 'Regulation Screws - Various'.

I found 346 of them!
No idea where they came from - they must have been part of a job lot of spares I bought from Boosey & Hawkes back in the '90s...though I'm not sure how the factory at Edgware would have ended up with them (don't think B&H had anything do with importing Conn horns). Maybe they're not actually Conn lock screws, but regulation screws from the Edgware flute range? Not that it matters because they're a straight fit in every way.

Conn lock screws.jpg
 
Impressive that you kept going to find 346, and then counted them. Most people would give up after finding 8 or 9. I suppose they were there taunting you and you couldn’t resist. You’re all set for another 49 horns now.
 
Dead right! I needed to separate them out anyway, and I was just curious as to how many were actually there. Can't see me ever running short of them again!
 
Well, I know they were sold under the Lafleur name in the UK, but I was under the impression that Chappels (of Bond Street) were the main agents.
 
Dang. I have to buy the ones I need from Kraus at 95 cents each. You've got enough for life. ;)
 
Sorting out another Conn 6M at the moment, and saw that I needed seven of those (useless) fiddly little lock screws.
Had kinda resigned myself to having to make them from scratch, which is never a fun job - but just on a whim I decided to have a shuffle through my various draws of 'Assorted and Miscellaneous Screws'.
Went through a handful of drawers and then pulled one out that was labelled 'Regulation Screws - Various'.

I found 346 of them!

I'm astonished that you found them before you spent ages making seven from scratch. Have you time to pop out and buy a lottery ticket this evening?
 
Dang. I have to buy the ones I need from Kraus at 95 cents each. You've got enough for life. ;)

Enough for a whole 'nother life.

It's been so many, many years since I bought the job lot of parts that I can't even begin to recall the details - but the fact that they were in a drawer labelled adjusters may mean that that's what they really are...and it's just a fortuitous coincidence that they fit the Conn.
I'll take a closer look tomorrow - but let's face it, a grub screw is a grub screw. If it's the right thread, diameter and length, there's little else to quibble about.
 
I found some threaded fasteners on a modelling website.
Which brings to mind the story of a local journalist, who had to report a rape in a launderette, by an escaped mental patient, who then absconded. The headline he went for...you guessed it.

NUT SCREWS WASHERS AND BOLTS
 
I'll take a closer look tomorrow - but let's face it, a grub screw is a grub screw. If it's the right thread, diameter and length, there's little else to quibble about.
There has been an ongoing debate among repair techs as to the thread size on the original Conn set screws. Maybe you can clear that up for us. :)
 
There has been an ongoing debate among repair techs as to the thread size on the original Conn set screws. Maybe you can clear that up for us. :)

Nah, I like watchin' 'em fight.
Besides, I can't be arsed to fire up my microscope and fiddle around with a 72 pitch thread gauge...

I took a shonky close-up photo (didn't have my macro lens handy) from which it's clear to see that the Conn screw (right) has a very pronounced divot on the tip of the screw. The screw of the left is one of the ones I found, and you can see it doesn't have the same tip. Sure, there's a tiny divot - but this is down to the manufacturing process rather than being deliberate.
I did some further checking and found that the screws are a dead fit for the adjuster on old Boosey & Hawkes flutes - which ties in with where I got them from.

But - given the uselessness of the lock screws, pretty much anything will do...provided you back it up with decent threadlocking solution.

Conn lock screws closeup.jpg
 
...Forgot to add...

As a bonus, it turns out these screws are slightly austenitic. They're still magnetic, but about half as much as the original Conn screws (which are plain steel). At a guess I'd say they were 304 stainless. Which is nice.
 
Good man Stephen : I've had a few assorted and miscellaneous screws in my time but that's another story...;)
 
@Royston ; I had a new wonder II tenor years back with the same engraving : pretty cool I should have kept but er...yeah : hmmm
 
Question for you thread boffins; as an ex engineer, brought up at the time of imperial to metric conversion (early 1970's) we worked on defence contracts, for equipment no doubt for use in the various treaty armies across Europe. I can recall having many issues with any number of threads before we converted to metric across the board (Zeus book the bible) including French reverse threads, which were in any number of products ranging from French cars to consumer and defence kit. So, why do none of the French, Belgian instruments (Buisson, Noblet, Selmer, EJ Albert etc) have reverse threads in their instruments. Every time I take an old Albert, or pre 1970's French clarinet apart I stop and wonder if someone has kindly utilised backward screws and rods!! It appears a real head scratcher as they were happy to use them on ballistic missiles but not clarinets and saxophones?? I am probably just missing something obvious but it does seem odd! Answers please from knowledgeable folk, eg Stephen, or similar elders???? Or simple guesses from all!
 
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