Snake Eye Screws: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

From this author’s point of view Snake Eye screws are very much a favourite. Being both aesthetically pleasing and with limited availability of driver inserts, for my money these are one of the more secure two-way security fixings available in the UK today.

However, for the security fasteners novice I thought I would use the title of this classic Western film to help highlight what is indeed good, bad and ugly about snake eye fixings.

The Good
Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. However, in my eyes and the eyes of many architects and contractors that specify and install security screws, snake eye screws are the best looking by some distance. What’s more, having spent three years living and breathing all things security screws, the driver inserts and screwdrivers are not quite as readily available as tools for other security screws. Finally on the ‘good’, I would say if you don’t have the correct driver inserts, snake eye screws (or Pig nose screws as they are often called) are one of the harder two-way screws to remove.

The Bad
For me the bad is all about torque. Up against their contemporary security pin screws, pin hex and pin torx, these screws cannot be tightened quite as far as these other two screws. Indeed, it is for the reason of torque that the range of lengths of these screws is restricted.

The Ugly
If you are installing 100 snake eye screws, 100 pin hex screws and 100 pin torx screws with an electric screwdriver or drill, you will probably burn through more snake eye driver inserts than either of the other two. This is because of the torque rating that primarily relates back the fact that snake eye screws rely on only two points of contact arranged in a parallel fashion. To combat this breakage rate, when positioning the driver insert or screwdriver, you must ensure it is exactly head on.

In truth, for my money I would always use a tool that I could hand turn. This will give you the best possible finish and minimise breakages. Once this screw is in place, in my humble opinion, this will give you the very best results.

Hopefully the above gives you a good summary of the pro and cons of these two hole screws. I can only apologise that no matter how informative it is it cannot possibly live up to the classic film of the same name!