Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Screws On Your Japanese Derailer Are Not Phillips

Carlton Reid tweeted:
It became clear from the reactions to this little nugget of info that while a few folks went "Duh, everybody knows that!", there were more "I didn't know that!" responses. So obviously everybody doesn't know that.

Since tweets often get lost in the babble of the moment (heck, Twitter is the babble of the moment!) I figure I'd pass this bit of info along in a blog post.

So, to recap, if you have a Japanese derailer (I use Sheldon's spelling for the bit of hardware the Brits call a "mech") you should use a JIS screwdriver to adjust it. In fact, various bits of Japanese hardware in your life may use JIS screws, so its may be worthwhile to invest in a set of JIS screwdrivers.




5 comments:

Iron Rider said...

How do you tell the difference?

Kent Peterson said...

Iron Rider,

This page will show you the difference. It's not easy to spot!

http://www.instructables.com/id/When-a-Phillips-is-not-a-Phillips/step10/JIS-Japanese-Industrial-Standard/

RoadieRyan said...

I did not know that (said in my best Johnny Carson) thanks for the tidbit

JFlaming said...

I'm digressing here, but that link has another repetition of the old "Phillips head were designed to cam out and slip under torque" argument. As a former engineer and mechanic I think this is an error that has been repeated until people believe it's true. I can't figure out where that assertion came from. If you read the original patent, Phillips described the "camming out" action, but it's about the screwdriver naturally removing debris caught in the head slot itself, not anything about torque limiting.
I'm pretty sure the difference between JIS and Phillips is just that the JIS was avoiding the Phillips patent, not because of a design difference about torque.

Olle Nilsson said...

Yeah, I doubt everybody knows that. I heard Carlton mention it on the Spokesmen podcast and none of the other guys knew either. I'll be keeping my eye out for a JIS screwdriver. Thanks for the tip Kent.