Best Phillips Screwdrivers?

The only craftsman philips drivers I ever damaged were replaced without a question. I think it was 2 in over 40 years.

drivers with trashed tips I need to replace."

Try grinding the end of the tip some and using them as a #2. That solves th e problem of under broached heads. This is when the broaching tool wears ou t and does not go deep enough.

Years ago I had some #2s that were so good you could stick them in the scre ws in the sides of a VCR and they would stay there, supporting their own we ight. Off brand, buck apiece at an auto parts store. Once I bought a couple and found out how good they are I went back and bought them all. But that was like 20 years ago and they are all gone. I cut some of the handles off for use i drilldrivers as well and they seemed to hold up.

There are also variants. For contractor use, Milwaukee makes a slightly dif ferent one. Only available as an insert though. But if you need to drive a four inch decking screw into a 2X4 and 4X4 and have a powerful enough drill , they grab well enough to break the head of the screw off. Had it happen, and those were some pretty beefy screws. These inserts are slightly narrow er than a normal #2 and you can see the tip is cut a bit differently. Like they don't intend for it to bottom out.

Soft shitty poorly formed JIS screws also exist - in cheap, shitty, poorly made Japanese vacuums. Not nearly as common as they used to be (japanese quality is generally pretty good today)

The screws are likely metric and don't fit tight as the Imperial ones do. Martin

Alas, it's not that simple. Pozidrive is licensed by Phillips just like Phillips is, the Japanese use JIS standards instead.

Frearson (aka Reed and Prince) is a fourth standard; that one, rarely slips and doesn't have multiple sizes with different shapes. It's rare, though.

I bought this cheapo Harbor Freight set to get the special bit for Game Boy Dual Screens:

Those bits aren't 1/4 inch but rather 5/32 inch. I was able to use it with a small torx bit to get down into a deep hole that my 1/4 bits couldn't.

Nothing special but it has already paid for itself. Figure it should last for awhile if I only use it when necessary...

--
Leon Fisk 
Grand Rapids  MI/Zone 5b 
Remove no.spam for email

I gave up trying to exactly differentiate screw types a long time ago. Some others came to a similar conclusion.

Now if a driver seems to camming too much, I just try a different driver or when I can, resort to an impact driver (hammer type) which is an indispensable tool sometimes, especially for old motorcycle stuff.

I learned long ago to use a "Japanese screwdriver for a Japanese screw". At length, it means use an ISO tip with ISO screws a JIS tip with a JIS screw , a Philips tip with a Philips screw, and a Pozidrive tip with a Pozidrive screw. I use Hozan for most Asian heads, Euro Stanley for Pozidrive and Xce lite for USA Philips. I have security bit tip sets for the occasional pisse r-offer. Yea, I have a lot of money invested in tools as I have drawers ful l of brands and sizes. But it is an investment that pays. Hozan for instanc e make driver sets with interchangeable tips. This can save money.

Klay

I was in an RC hobby store and asked about JIC and Posidrive screwdrivers, which they didn't carry. Maybe they don't torque the screws in models hard enough to notice the difference?

They did have EC5 connectors and 10 AWG Silicone rubber insulated wire to connect to a Lithium jump starter pack, so I can measure its real Amp-Hour capacity and misuse it with other loads.

-jsw

Yeah yeah, and the OP is fixing time capsule vacuum cleaners for a museum.

There's got to be some strange dull pointed phillips "standard" in China for bad screws.

A lot of people think they are all "Phillips" and that some screwdrivers just work better than others...

I always tried to take pride in my repair work. I wanted stuff to look as good or better than when it came in. Jimmied up screw slots were not "professional" work in my opinion.

The Game Boy I was working on was one I found along the road and had been well used/abused. Not to mention it was in the spring and the snow was still melting. I managed to get four of the five special headed screws out by wedging the slot with a jewelers straight blade. The last one broke the side off my screwdriver. Crap!

Even with the new, proper bit from HF it came out really hard. I was surprised it didn't break the bit. It looked amazingly well inside yet. No corrosion to speak of. The problem was corrosion on the cartridge connector pins. Got it working and that ended my "fun" with a Dual Screen Game Boy.

Next time I get close to one of the local hobby shops I'll have to see what kind of odd items they have. Thanks for the tip :)

--
Leon Fisk 
Grand Rapids  MI/Zone 5b 
Remove no.spam for email

The problem is that Phillips is only ONE of the standards for cross-recess screw heads. There is also Reed and Prince, ISO, Japanese and military cross recess. The Phillips tip will generally turn these others, but is not a good fit, and will quickly get the gripping surfaces rounded off.

Jon

That wire usually has very fine strands, so is very flexible and can carry an extraordinary amount of current. Still not big enough for some of the old battery powered 2 meter gliders. They used to call those "flying welders", because if one crashed, that's what it looked like when you shorted about 48 C sized nicad cells.

Pete Keillor

Except for carbon fiber extrusions and high current battery connectors the stock and tool selection hasn't changed much in decades. I mentioned these low-cost meters

and the owner said they don't try to compete with the Internet on that stuff.

-jsw

O.K. The first thing is that the proper Phillips tip *looks* too big fro the screw. The wings extend beyond the slots in the screw head..

The test (with a new tip) is to put it in loosely and feel for play ifyou gently try to rotate it with your fingertips on the shank. If it feels a bit loose, it is too small -- go to the next size up.

Aside from this -- there are screw heads which look similar, but are not. Reed and Prince is one such. That one has a different point shape, too.

As for what I find better overall are long shank 1/4" screwdriver bits without handles. They can plug into handles, or into electric screwdrivers/torque-limiting drills, or even into small ratchet wrenches at need. They are forged from harder metals than consumer grade screwdrivers.

This is because (as I mentioned above) it is likely too small for the screw. Often (for flat-head screws) the diameter of the screw head is barely larger than the diameter of the screwdriver shank.

Way back when, I got some screwdrivers from Snap-On, and they were very good. The handles were a rounded triangle shape, lots of grip for torque. Plated shank, but unplated tip. However, one of the two from then (No. 2 Phillips and a common size straight-blade) had the handle split in two across about the enclosed end of the shank. I don't know whether it was something like oil attacking the plastic or what, and they no longer make that shape of handle.

And -- does the No. 2 point fit into the screws before they are damaged?

Wiha makes larger ones, too. But make sure that the point fits the screw before you start to apply torque.

Good Luck, DoN.

--
                  Remove oil spill source from e-mail 
Email:  | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 
   (too) near Washington D.C.     | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html 
           --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

[ ... ]

I've found at the local electronics parts place sets of 1/4" hex drive screwdriver bits about 6" long. The larger ones are hex the whole way down, but the smaller ones are turned to the proper diameter for a normal screwdriver so they will if down those deep holes.

BTW -- when using them in a drill with torque limiting the weight of the rill motor helps apply more axial force to the bit to keep it irmly seated in he screw, so they do tend to last longer in such service than you would expect.

And -- remember, the Phillips screw was *designed* to torque out to limit the chance of wringing off a screw during production assembly.

Enjoy, DoN.

--
                  Remove oil spill source from e-mail 
Email:  | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 
   (too) near Washington D.C.     | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html 
           --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

This is what I have - more than just Phillips -

Flats that fit the screws - this makes slips out of the slot rare.

Mart> >

The last one that I exchanged was a #2. I broke the tip the first time I used it. I was removing the cover from a computer. One of those cheap Chinese #6, with a combo Philips/hex head. I removed it with a no name driver that I bought from 'Bud's Place', which was Walmart's closeout branding. I bought 100 of them for 25 cents each. I had intended to braze some of the 1/4" hex security bits on them, but I have never managed to wear one out.

I've never bought another Craftsman tool since then. That was about

20 years ago.

--
Never piss off an Engineer! 

They don't get mad. 

They don't get even. 

They go for over unity! ;-)

Xcelite's quality dropped, after Cooper Tools bought them. Like every other brand that they've purchased.

--
Never piss off an Engineer! 

They don't get mad. 

They don't get even. 

They go for over unity! ;-)