"Set Square" wrote in message ...

How would I go about cutting screws to make them shorter, would a saw
ruin the screw?

Are you talking about woodscrews, or parallel-sided machine screws? If the
latter, the trick is to screw a nut onto the screw *before* shortening it.
Then cut it to length with a hacksaw. Then file the end as flat as you can.
Finally unscrew and remove the nut. As it passes the cut end, it will clean
up the threads.

machine screws. dunno if they're parallel sided. I'll be screwing them
into HDDs and Cases and cd drives. That's why I want non-conducting,
in case they're long and hit a PCB, and that's also why I want to
shorten them.
I'm gonna get/make thumbscrews.

what screw is best for screwing into steel? alu, brass, steel? It'd
be good if the screw didn't conduct electricity.

Are you talking about screwing into solid blocks of material, or thin
sheets?

would a plastic nylon screw hold a HDD and CD drive securely without
vibrations(seems like it should), dunno why they aren't standard -
since metal ones can be too long, hit the PCB and short the device.