HOME MADE SCREW TIGHTENER

I have to assemble large numbers of flight kennels for pets of every size. They are designed rather like plastic egg-boxes with the top and bottom screwed together with small plastic wing nuts. You can imagine how tedious this becomes, with the fiddliness of the pieces, and so close to the sidewall of the kennels. A mechanical solution was crying out the be developed.

There are fittings that can be mounted on an electric drill, but this makes it only too easy to strip the plastic threads.

I had this old Archimedes’ Screwdriver rolling about in the bottom of a toolbox. Not been used for years, and missing most of its attachments. Using the only remaining screwdriver head, I turned this small attachment out of maple. The collar is a piece of 3/4 copper pipe, and the holes just drilled and shaped to grip the plastic nut. You can easily sense the tightness of the nut. Works a treat, both for assembly and disassembly, and I use it nearly every day.

-- Experience: What you get when you don't get what you expect.