PROJECT 8
March 2003
MAKING ELEKTRIKIT PIVOT BOLTS AND ELEKTRIKIT CONTACT SCREWS
Contact Screws
CONTACT SCREWS
The Elektrikit Contact Screw is a 3/8" long bolt. The thread under the head is removed to ID it as a Contact Screw.
The end of the bolt is rounded off and the head has a silver solder dome.
I used 1/2" Allen head bolts to make my contact screws.
I started by clamping the bolt in the chuck of my power drill and used the edge of a triangle file to remove about
1mm of thread from under the head of the bolt while running the drill.
Next I ground the head of the Allen bolt down to give it the same diameter and sloping shape of a contact screw.
Next I tightened 3 hex nuts onto the bolt so that I could turn it around in the drill chuck to cut the 1/2" bolt
down to the required 3/8". I used a fine hacksaw blade to cut down the bolt and I then ran the drill and used
a file to round off the end of the bolt.
The bolt is now ready to be soldered. I spread flux inside the hole of the bolts head.
I estimated the size of solder needed by trial and error and placed a length of it into the hole.
Begin heating the solder with a butane torch.
After a few seconds the solder will collapse and run into the areas spread with flux.
The solder makes a nice dome all by itself. I put the bolt back into the drill chuck and
using fine sandpaper I smoothed off the dome and sanded the dome down a bit if needed.
From Left: Original contact screw, My repro, 1/2" Allen head bolt.
I made seven bolts in 3 hours. The original is on the right.