Metallics TP234SBC Screws 1/4-20 x 3/8 Btn Star Pin TR MS 18 (100 pcs)

It takes a pin-in-star (pin-in-Torx) bit, not a standard Torx. The TP234SBC head has a six-lobe star recess with a solid pin in the center, so a regular Torx driver bottoms out on the pin and will not seat. You need the matching pin-in-star security bit in the correct size, which is the whole point of the head: a passer-by with a standard bit set cannot back it out. If you are maintaining these across a site, buy the bits at the same time as the screws.

Two reasons, and both show up in public or shared spaces. The pin-in-star recess on the TP234SBC blocks common drivers, which deters tampering with enclosure covers, device plates, fixture housings and panels in corridors, lobbies, transit areas and schools. The button head sits low and rounded with no sharp corners to catch on clothing or hands. If the fastener is behind a locked door or inside a mechanical room, a plain Phillips machine screw does the same mechanical job for less effort to service.

No. It is a machine screw, so it requires an existing 1/4-20 tapped hole or a 1/4-20 nut. It will not form its own thread in sheet metal the way a self-drilling or sheet-metal screw does. If your cover or panel has an unthreaded hole, you either tap it to 1/4-20 or use a nut, rivet nut or clinch nut behind the material.

100 pieces per pack. That quantity suits bulk security work, retrofitting covers across a floor of enclosures or standardizing a building on one tamper-resistant fastener, rather than a one-off repair. Each pack is a single size, 1/4-20 x 3/8, so if your openings use more than one length you will need the matching part for each.

TP234SBC is the Metallics manufacturer part number, and it covers the 1/4-20 x 3/8 button head star pin tamper-resistant machine screw supplied 100 to a pack. Order by that number to avoid pulling a different length or a standard Torx head by mistake.