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Screw Innovation, Part 2: Outlaw Fasteners

By Rain Noe - November 1, 2013

in Hand Tools

It takes balls to redesign a screw, if you'll pardon my French. The incumbency of standardization is a difficult hurdle to overcome, particularly if you're going to change the screwhead pattern into something new; I don't know anyone who enjoys having to change driver bits from Phillips to #2 Phillips to square-drive to Torx, but different manufacturers' ideas of what shape will drive best without stripping necessitate it.

Still, a team of guys comprised of an industrial designer, a mechanical engineer, a contractor and "some business guys" reckoned they could invent a better deck screw, and having put in two years of development time, they'll shortly be bringing it to market.

They've named their screw Outlaw, and it's easy to see why: The driver system doesn't look like any you've ever seen. While it's hexagonal, like an Allen key, it's also tiered, which technically provides 18 points of contact between the bit and the screw head. This, they reckon, will make it strip-proof. (I do wonder, though, what the lack of cam-out will do if the screw is accidentally driven in an irresistible-force-meets-immovable-object scenario; will the head break off?)

The second benefit of the Outlaw bit/head design is that screws will stay on the driver non-magnetically, like it does with a square-drive set-up, allowing one-handed driving. Maybe I'm just a klutz, but whenever I need to drill one-handed with a conventional Phillips-head screw-—usually when I'm up on a ladder and have to stretch—that's always when the screw comes unseated from the bit and dangles from it magnetically at a weird angle, which is almost more irritating than if it would just fall off.Aside from the unusual head, the Outlaw team has also added a knurled section in the center of the screw, meant to catch inside the outermost material you're fastening. This is designed to prevent "jacking," that thing that happens when the outermost board starts moving towards you and away from the thing you're trying to fasten it to as you're nearly finished driving the screw.

The tip of the screw is self-tapping. Unlike Spax's wild-looking serrated-threads approach, they've opted for the same treatment you'd see on a Kreg screw, where half of the tip is sheared off longitudinally.

In order to be able to afford to mass-produce their screws, the Outlaw team needed to have guaranteed sales of 10,000 50-pound boxes. They started a Kickstarter campaign, and this week they hit the end of the funding period-—reaching their $100,000 target with nine large to spare. They're anticipating a 2014 Q1 shipping date.

While the Kickstarter campaign is over, the pitch video they produced for it gives you a informative look at their design. Not sure who the video production team was, but they're definitely observers of the Men's Shave Club style:

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Comments

R D

11 years ago

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I just saw this and think it solves the last three problems related to a screw. It's not just the fact these things won't strip, but they don't fall off the bit and you only need one drive. So, that's what's wrong with Torx, it won't strip, but you need lot's of them to drive different size screws and the bit won't hold the screw so I am always picking them up when they fall off. All of the other drives suck and this thing kills the Torx. Hopefully this will be standard and we won't have to deal with bad screws anymore.
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qui

11 years ago

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The comparison picture of the screws joining two boards really annoys me, and kind of shows the spirit of this company. If your product does not have any real advantages, make some up. Like mentioned above you would always use a screw with no thread on the top part to fix two boards together. And I believe the existed already before the outlaw fasteners...
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John I

11 years ago

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By Square-Drive do you mean a Robertston? The Robertson stays on the driver non-magnetically already.
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James P

11 years ago

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The knurled feature is a solution looking for a problem. The "Traditional" screw that they use in the comparison photo is not meant to fasten two boards. It's meant to fasten a metal bracket to a board. To fasten two boards, you would use a screw that is only threaded on the first half.
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JRK

11 years ago

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I agree with the comments about the drive, but I'm really curious about the knurled section and if it really delivers - that would be great.
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eman

11 years ago

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This project already annoyed me on Kickstarter. What is wrong with Torx, the standard now used almost everywhere. Ever tried to put an Allen key only a bit into the hole and then try to loosen a screw? The key will slip and the top part of the hexagon hole will be destroyed. Now if you have a deep hole you have the chance to try again. This idea is effectively three Allen keys put only a bit into the hole, so this screw is very prone to stripping. And then there is no second chance. Have fun with it...
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Berkana

11 years ago

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There's a misunderstanding of theirs being illustrated here. It's not the number of "points" that results in torque transmission and strip resistance; It's the angle at which the force comes in contact with each surface. A hexagonal driver, such as an allen key, has the corners bearing all the torque, but the force pushing against the surfaces inside the screw's pocket at 30 deg. A square drive has the corners impinge upon the pocket at 45 deg. If they want maximum transfer with minimum risk of stripping, they'll want something that has a force impingement angle that is perpendicular--face to face, with no chance of sliding or caming. The Polydrive, Bristol, Torq-set and Tri-wing patterns achieve this. The Mortorq is also pretty good, though not quite perpendicular in force impingement.

Wikipedia has a great article under "list of screw drives" that shows many of these. Their article on the Torx pattern has a great illustration of the principle I showed above.
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Stebu

11 years ago

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Happy to see this!
I won't buy it 'til I try it though, and here's why.
While more contact points are definitely better, HARK! it is not always necessarily so... A problem that arises with more contact points is decreased tolerance in the joint between the bit and screw-head. In practice this means that the joint can become "too good" and the screw tricky to detach from the bit. And when you're doing a 1000 sq ft of deck i.e. 5000 screws, there are less annoying things that having to wiggle your power drill away from each screw. There was an aggressive market penetration a few years back by http://ttapdrive.com. Basically it works without a magnetic holder, but it's too tight and that's why I gave up on them. Problem was, few hardware stores sold conventional screws anymore.
Having a magnetic holder also has one big advantage. You can single handedly just stick your junk in the screw box and you'll have a handful of screws good to go.
I'm not finished. When having to screw at a slight angle, which we all do occasionally, nothing beats a good ol' PH or PZ.
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