Socata - the most expensive cheap screw ever?

I was contacted a few months ago by another former TB owner, telling me about this (probably the same) contact, and he said that guy will be in touch, but I never heard anything… There are complicated loyalty issues in the TB group, however, which prevent anything like this being advertised in the group, by anybody, because only official Socata parts are allowed there (generally). I got the push from there in 2008 so it doesn’t bother me, however…

The world is full of screw manufacturers (like the UK firm I found), plus everybody and their dog in China can make these. The only issue is getting enough people to stick their hands in their pockets At work, we buy screws and springs etc from China and in volume they cost almost nothing… the downside is we have to buy say 300k of them (at 1p each) which will last us 100 years!

As I obliquely mentioned earlier, I have another source in view, at a very good price, which is completely new but prefer to not count my chickens before they have hatched.

The other thing is that a % of TB owners won’t accept anything without an 8130-3. With some effort I have located and bought a load of the exact same relays (avionics, and flap – here) but most people won’t take them because there is no paperwork. The maintenance company won’t touch them, not least because they don’t make the margin.

I have managed to purchase, at a good price, over 1000 of these screws.

100% genuine Socata (I know this because I know exactly the route they followed), perfect condition, never used of course. No paperwork, obviously.

I can’t use this many so will bag them up into bags of say 50 or 100 and sell most of them. I think half the Socata price (which I believe is about $6) should be achievable.

Just a screw with a nonstandard angle (although the angle is not unusual in aviation) and a sharp edge on the head. Most screws are rolled with a round edge, and don’t sit flush. See earlier in the thread.

Sure the 8130-3 or EASA-1 is ridiculous for screws but most European maintenance companies ask for paperwork

Self-flagellators?

No, just Europe

I have bagged some in bags of 50 and 100.

The price is USD 3.00 / EUR 2.50 / GBP 2.18 each. Free postage in Europe.

There are no more left where these came from…

Just bumping this thread. I have sold quite a lot of these now but still have a few hundred left.

Most of the stock I had is now sold but I still have some left.

I have noticed some posts on the Socata owners site, suggesting these have some sort of questionable “composition” and the wrong head radius These are the real screws supplied by Socata to a customer of theirs, some years ago. They are expensive because they are “semicustom” screws, with a thin head radius; around 0.1mm. That enables them to sit flush even in material no thicker than the head thickness. This information was posted earlier in this thread.

Of course you can get M4 CSK stainless screws from Ebay for $0.05 but they will have forged heads, not machined heads like these, so they won’t sit flush in the TB inspection panels and the wingtip screw holes.

There is no paperwork because the customer chucked it away. I realise this is an issue for some people, but is basically ridiculous in GA. These are not structural fasteners.

This is getting more funny every day. Someone on the Socata owners group has just posted that Socata put in a secret mark in the head of their screw, with the suggestion that without this mark the screw is counterfeit.

Well, a pic of one of my original screws (definitely from Socata, since AFAIK they, ahem, built my plane) is at the start of this thread. And here is the best pic I can do with a phone of one of the screws I have here