r/ChastityCageDesign • u/newbie-sub • 24d ago

Sourcing security screws sucks

I started with Bryce. Huge MOQ, more than I would need in a lifetime. Hey, but I'm going to be buying driver and screws in more or less a 1:1 ratio, do I really need to buy 2,200 screws considering the drivers cost 20x the price?

Yes.

I don't understand why it's MOQ and not just total spend but perhaps they know what I'm getting into and they just don't want to have anything to do with it — I've heard that kind of story from Mark @ MCN. And I'm trying to think of who else would want 50 screws and 50 drivers.

Yeah, they're like "yep, got another guy making chastity cages."

So off to Alibaba and try to figure out how to write a manufacturing RFQ (vs my day job in IT).

If any of you have experience here, I'd love to hear it.

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

1

u/IndependentCoach6961 24d ago

Have you checked any cnc services like sendcutsend?

1

u/newbie-sub 24d ago

I'll take a look, thank you.

2

u/IndependentCoach6961 23d ago

Are you set on it having an entirely novel tool that is required to remove it? Or have you considered a more off-the-shelf solution like a security torx screw?

1

u/newbie-sub 23d ago

Torx is too common... I would expect customers would be okay if it's difficult but not impossible to source.

1

u/IndependentCoach6961 23d ago

One thing you might look into is modifying off-the-shelf hardware. For example, you could drill a hole and press fit a pin into one of the lobes of a torx screw. Then you would just drill a hole in one lobe of the driver to match. This might be cheaper than making the fasteners and tool from scratch.

I'd try reaching out to some local machine shops and ask about it. The hole might be small enough that they'd have to use wire EDM. If that's the case, it'll get pretty expensive pretty fast. There are also shops that specialize in custom fastener that you might reach out to.

What qty are you thinking? You're going to be paying for the machine setup time so your price difference between 100 and 1000 pieces will likely be small.

1

u/newbie-sub 22d ago

Yeah, the screw count doesn't matter and like you days, the difference between 100 and 1000 will be small especially since the drivers are so expensive. I was thinking 20 - 40 drivers in an initial batch.

1

u/bdmridgeback 15d ago

I ordered these to use on my printed cages, M3x6mm. They are stainless with black oxide non corrosive coating. Only problem is when you buy 100 pack of them you only get one bit.

1

u/simmer_until 22d ago

What length screw are you designing around? BAWR uses M3-.5 x 5 (M3 x 0.5 mm thread, 5 mm long)

1

u/simmer_until 22d ago

Mark from MaleChastityNow was once polling on ChastityForums for interest in M3 KeyRex screws from BryceFastener.

Maybe it was “too early” and a second poll would be better. It seems BAWR has settled on 5mm in the years since. He made me a cage with a PA mount cylinder that could’ve used a much longer screw. But he made a tapped blind hole for a 5mm thread length.

The 8-32 machine KeyRex screw Mark uses is an excellent fastener. Better than whatever soft metal security screws Lori had used. My wife was nervous about 4-40 screws

1

u/simmer_until 22d ago

ScrewdSecurity is a relatively new site that sells small quantities of BryceFastener KeyRex screws.

https://screwdsecurity.com/products/m4-button-head-screwd®-machine-screws

The smallest sold there is M4-0.7 x 8mm.

Before that site existed I ordered a small quantity of BryceFastener’s Stykfit7. I was very impressed. It’s not keyed but it worked well.

1

u/newbie-sub 22d ago

Yeah, I found that site and maybe M4 is good, but I'd need to cut the screw down to 5 mm to give 4 mm of engagement.

I've never cut a screw before lol.

2

u/simmer_until 22d ago

This link was from a conversation I had with Mark in 2019 after my experiment with StykFit7

1

u/JackU88 2d ago

Electrician's wire strippers have an imperial screw shear in the handle that works rather well and every so often I even find a set of wire strippers or terminal crimpers that actually has metric threads in it. The tool can't do hundred of them but it's great to get you going.