Replacing / redrilling screw holes?

[Scurvy]

Along with everything else I've been upgrading, I've thrown on some SS screws from CreationFab to replace the stock ones. I've come upon a few questions.

The M2.6 screws seem quite hard to get, is there a downside to just drilling the various M2.6 holes out for M3?
According to my manual, the M2.6's are used in these places:

• 6mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0412) [x3]: holding Rx box onto frame
• 6mm, button head, self-tapping (AXA0422):
  • [x16]: side panels [x2]
  • [x5]: roof
  • [x4]: hood
  • [x4]: holding interior to frame
• 8mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0413) [x4]: holding battery tray onto frame
• 10mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0414):
  • [x3]: holding gear cover over pinion/spur
  • [x2]: holding Rx box together, front end
  • holding ESC tray onto frame
• 18mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0416): holding Rx box together, tail end

Along the same lines, the M3 18mm don't seem standard either. They're used mostly to hold the frame together. Can they go bigger (20mm) or smaller (16mm), or should I look for something else? I've already used 16mm in the place of 15mm IIRC.

I saw another post on here where everything was replaced with normal M3 cap-head machine screws from the hardware store. I like the look of some of it a lot actually, is there a downside that anyone knows of?

I can't see either really being a problem, maybe err on the side of slightly longer most of the time. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something and doing something stupid!

Thanks!

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Scurvy

Along with everything else I've been upgrading, I've thrown on some SS screws from CreationFab to replace the stock ones. I've come upon a few questions.

The M2.6 screws seem quite hard to get, is there a downside to just drilling the various M2.6 holes out for M3?
According to my manual, the M2.6's are used in these places:

• 6mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0412) [x3]: holding Rx box onto frame
• 6mm, button head, self-tapping (AXA0422):
  • [x16]: side panels [x2]
  • [x5]: roof
  • [x4]: hood
  • [x4]: holding interior to frame
• 8mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0413) [x4]: holding battery tray onto frame
• 10mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0414):
  • [x3]: holding gear cover over pinion/spur
  • [x2]: holding Rx box together, front end
  • holding ESC tray onto frame
• 18mm, flat head, self-tapping (AXA0416): holding Rx box together, tail end

Along the same lines, the M3 18mm don't seem standard either. They're used mostly to hold the frame together. Can they go bigger (20mm) or smaller (16mm), or should I look for something else? I've already used 16mm in the place of 15mm IIRC.

I saw another post on here where everything was replaced with normal M3 cap-head machine screws from the hardware store. I like the look of some of it a lot actually, is there a downside that anyone knows of?

I can't see either really being a problem, maybe err on the side of slightly longer most of the time. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something and doing something stupid!

Thanks!

I've seen people drill the holes to use 3mm instead of 2.6mm to hold body panels. The battery tray mounts looks like you could just screw in some 3mm machine flat heads. Whenever I replace screws with machine screws, I measure the assembled hole depth and use a tiny bit shorter if it's a blind hole. If it's not a blind hole and there is nothing to damage or expose the screw end, then I go even a little bit longer.

Many times the machine screws usually hold better in the plastic in my experience except not sure about on the roll cage. I assembled my Wraith cage with stock screws, but I replaced every other self-tapping screw with machine button heads. That's how I've always done it, they stay tighter and for me it's easier to feel when the screw is tight.