Newbie Frustration

[thePreacher]

So today is Canada Day long weekend and i figure its a great time to try and put my Trex 450 together. So off i go putting it together taking a few breaks here and there until i come to my tail/boom. which then i see in the instruction manual that they didnt want me to "tighten" the boom harness, despite the fact that it CAME pre fabricated and tightened :|

But the real frustration comes after pretty much all day working on my heli, ive worn down the two cheapass allen key screwdrivers that came with the kit ! Urgh, hence my current frustration. Why on earth does it come with such a cheap set of allen key screws :( Argh, tommorow im oging to be investing in a good hexagon screw driver set !!!

[thePreacher]

oh and my other big frustration, WHY DONT THESE KITS USE REGULAR Screws ?@!@?#! why bloody hexagon screw sets ? i know they want to leech us for more money but geeze urghhhhhhhhhhhh

[TheBum]

oh and my other big frustration, WHY DONT THESE KITS USE REGULAR Screws ?@!@?#! why bloody hexagon screw sets ? i know they want to leech us for more money but geeze urghhhhhhhhhhhh
Hex head screws are much easier to get tight without stripping the heads. Most people, myself included, prefer them over flathead or Phillips.

[DrunkRabbit]

Maybe it's the engineer side of me speaking, but Hex head screws are pretty much standard. That's all I ever use in design's. :dontknow As the Bum said, Hex drive screws will handle torque of the driver much better than phillips or flat head. They are much less likely to strip out the head.....you will more than likely shear off the entire head or round your tool before you deform the feature.

Get a good set of metric hex drivers....with ball ends. They will become invaluable with quality build hardware. Agreed, the little allen keys that come with the kits are barely up to the job.

[daijoubu]

Get a good set of metric hex drivers....

...then throw those away and buy the align ones until align starts using proper metric fasteners!

[Skarn]

...then throw those away and buy the align ones until align starts using proper metric fasteners!

Huh?

There is nothing wrong with the Align hex screws....it's the cheap hex drivers they put in the kit that suck!

Once I got a decent set of metric hex drives as DrunkRabbit stated, all was fine :)

Skarn

[daijoubu]

The align screws seem to be a little oversized. It's not a problem in most application but when putting the long 2.6mm button head thread cutting screws into plastic on the 500, the heads round out. The solution seems to be either buy align tools or buy an aftermarket fastener kit.

[GreenCello]

If you've rounded the flats on the cheap Align allen wrenches and don't have access to quality hex drivers, file or grind off the rounded portion of the allen wrench and you'll be able to tighten a couple of screws before it rounds again. Worked for me.

[DrunkRabbit]

Knowing how much it costs to tool up custom fastners, I would be very surprised to learn that Align is using non-standard custom hardware. Cheap hardware - probably, custom - most likely not.

My Snap-On metric Driver and the Align kit fastners haven't given me a lick of trouble........

:dontknow

[thePreacher]

just a quick update for everyone, my frustration has turned into utter and complete joy. After work today i went back to the hobby store where i picked up all my goodies from, picked up a set of align hex screw drivers, semi cringed at price and went home.

It is now 6 hours since ive been home and ive finally completed all the chasis, rotorhead, installing servos, and tailboom ! suffice to say i cant believe i finished the majority of it within 2 days ! Im going to be leaving the esc/reciever wires and lipo for tommorow. (now i wish it was friday)

[daijoubu]

It's not that expensive to tool up custom fasteners. It's pretty stupid, but not too expensive. I don't think Align did that, I think they just buy cheap fasteners and made sure they're tools work well no matter what the actual size of their fasteners is.