How to countersink balcony hex screws?

[BoeingFan]

Hi All,

I am removing my old balcony railing in order to sand and repaint it. The hex screws you can see in the photo currently sit proud of the wooden railing face, and I'd like to have them in set so that the top of the hex screw is level with the wooden railing. Is this still called countersunk? I think countersinks have an angled blade, but this one will need to be flat to sit flush against the back of the hex head. Do you have these and what are they called, please?

Thanks,

Jason

Hex Screws Proud of Wooden Railing

[Noyade]

Good morning Mr Boeing! 😁 @BoeingFan 

I'd go for a set of Forstner bits.

A quick measurement of my hex head is 15 mm - so my 5/8" would suffice. I'm sure they also come in metric.

You can see (circled) a larger Forstner hole I made for bolt heads. I tend to make the Forstner hole before you drill for the bolt or screw.

Low speed drilling - but usually, I use a Bit and Brace - call me old-fashioned.

May I also take this opportunity to ask - what interests you have with Boeing, that makes you a fan? 😁

Forstner Bits

[BoeingFan]

Hi @Noyade ,

Ah ha, thank you so much! I'll have a look around for a good set.

Re Boeing, well my passion for aviation started when I was 5, flying to Sydney each year on the East-West Fokker F-27 Friendships. Those Rolls Royce Dart engines sounds and smells were just magnificent. At 15 I left school and worked at the Grafton airport as a sales, check-in and baggage agent turning around those very same F-27's back to Sydney. At 27 I moved to Sydney and started work with Eastern Australia Airlines, now known as QantasLink, doing various functions including load controller, arrivals and departures controller, and crewing officer, on the Dash-8 Turboprop fleet. We had a golf buggy to whip around to all of the bays and when we had no movements, I would sit out on the tarmac and just watch all the 747's, 767's, MD-11's, and 717's. The 747's and the 767's stole my heart. The sounds of those RB211's is equal first with the Dart's, they are just heaven sent. Seeing 767's do go arounds on gusty days and 747's spool up for their take off roll just cemented my passion for these types. The purposeful look of the 767, with its STOL ability, and the magnificent 747's iconic silhouette which took me across Australia on the -300 series to PER, and then on the -400 to LAX locked in my love for the brand.

[EricL]

Hi @BoeingFan

My brother and I had a love of aircraft as well, we were fascinated with the bi-planes of the first world war and we would go to just about any air show that was showing back then. He ended up becoming an airline mechanic and I had a chance to see these huge jet engines opened up and being serviced. It was truly a sight to behold and a marvel of engineering.

Just a friendly reminder to measure the height of the hex-screw head to make sure you don't drill too deep into your timber railing. Please remember to wear appropriate safety gear such as gloves, safety goggles and a dust mask when drilling into the timber. 

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[BoeingFan]

Hi @EricL ,

It is a marvel of engineering isn't it, glad to meet a fellow aviation enthusiast! I am always in awe of what those giant turbines have to ingest as they punch out the grunt to get all that weight moving, airborne, and for such long periods of time... truly amazing!

Thanks re the reminder, I will have to get some PPE and a forstner kit to get cracking on the next task which is the balcony.

Cheers,

Jason

[Noyade]

Great stories! Thanks @BoeingFan and @EricL 

I'm just an amateur armchair aviation enthusiast - since a small child.

And I love factoids.

One, regarding Boeing and the TFX competition - it was Boeing that won it with their design, but McNamara overruled that decision and went with General Dynamics. There were reasons for this - not good ones.

So this is what our "F-111" may have looked like had Boeing proceeded - and they promised delivery in 1968....

Coulda/shoulda - but never happened.

[BoeingFan]

Hi @Noyade ,

Wow, that's one mean looking machine. To this day it is unthinkable that 60 years ago we were ushering in the 2x supersonic age, and yet, now, here we in the 21st century flying at subsonic speeds. All of those awesome (in the true sense of the word, not the mileniall sense) engineering feats now parked on the shelf. I saw a doco about the Concorde, and one captain said that he struggles to explain to his grand child that decades ago he was operating a passenger aircraft at twice the speed of sound across the Atlantic!

[Noyade]

Regards the doco Mr Boeing @BoeingFan.

Maybe if the grandchild asked what it cost a passenger to fly at Mach 2 across the Atlantic he would stop trying to explain. 😁

Speed isn't everything.

Cheers!

Graeme.

[BoeingFan]

@NoyadeHAHAHAHA I guess it would be like going from an Audi back to horse and cart. I wonder where all the money went that we had 60 years ago?