Phillips screws and bolts.... sheesh.... (1 Viewer)

[e9999]

I can't stand it any more.... what a *&^*&^*)&* design.

I get it, it's intended to cam out. Well, it does, often, especially when I don't want it to, ruining the head and my day at the same time. What a pain.

Our Euro friends have the Pozidriv. And our Canadian ones, the Robertson. And Torx is in many places too. And with an adjustable-torque driver, all those work pretty well.

We, however, are errrr.... screwed... with the darn Phillips ugly little cross-eyed monsters still everywhere! They have my vote for the worst screwhead of all for general purpose use. Even the straight slot ones are better cuz at least those have some history to them.

sheesh...

 

[wapitimud]

In Britain they have phillips and flat.

I've never seen the performance of posidrive, its a variation on phillps that i'm not confident of working well. I've seen it on some NZ equipment too...

You missed Hex, the metric hex bits fit inside Torx. You can't fix a German car or build Ikea furniture without those. Both of them round out bad.

Robertson is the way to go for woodworking and electrical, for sure. It'll work for metal too, but it's not that useful once the screws get bigger, hex head then.

Up here in Canada, i'll sell you whatever Robertson you want. Screwdrivers, Drill Driver Bits, box of 1000 screws... send me a PM.

 

[e9999]

IME Pozidriv works much better than Phillips. They don't cam out as readily. And, to be clear, yes, I'm sure Phillips have a place someplace, but I hope it's far far far away. Just not about everywhere in my gizmos... I even have to be careful with the little screws in my power tools and electronics. I just look at them and the head is damaged...

Yes, hexes are OK, not bad actually, although they seem more likely to round off than a square. When you get one of those Allen heads bolts really stuck, well, there goes your day too. Although at least usually you have something to bite on.
It's true I have not seen many big female square heads bolts, with the exception of machine tool stuff like chucks and the like. But seen some rather big Allen heads. Must be partly cuz the sweep of the tool is shorter on the hex.

 

[OwnerCS]

If you are working on Toyota, Lexus, Infiniti, or Nissan, and you see a screw that looks like a Philips, it may by a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) driver.

Here's a video about the different between Philips and JIS. JIS will not cam out like a Philips. After I started using Vessel JIS drivers, I stopped stripping screws. I use JIS drivers for everything now.

 

[thorslc1977]

I use them also. Wished I would have known about them years ago. Vessel's impact driver is the schnizel when removing old rusted bolts with JIS heads.

 

[e9999]

Yes, I'm thinking of JIS as sort of in between Phillips and Pozidriv. IIRC they still have tapered ribs.

 

[e9999]

Good grief! I was painfully reminded of this OP rant just yesterday. Had to do a quick drill job and made a quick little jig to hold the part. Picked 2 screws randomly from my bin to secure the jig to stand. First one was a Phillips. I didn't predrill. Sure enough, it cammed out repeatedly and basically mangled the head (yea yea I know, gotta push down etc...). Not great. Second one turned out was a Robertson. That thing worked out so much better. No camming out after repeated screwing and unscrewing. The screw would hold on the bit beautifully as well, no dropping it left and right to be lost under the bench. Geez... I envy our canadian friends who probably have all variations of screws in the Robertson flavor. And no, I do not plan on growing fonder of Phillips screwheads as I grow (even) older...

 

[OwnerCS]

Pssssst. J I S .

 

[e9999]

I know you love those things, but my Phillips screws were not JIS.

 

[Blue77FJ40]

I lucked out. I won a set of the 1-3 size Vessel drivers, size 2&3 striking drivers, and set of vessel ball end hex wrenches at a drivers raffle at coal miners!

 

[OwnerCS]

I lucked out. I won a set of the 1-3 size Vessel drivers, size 2&3 striking drivers, and set of vessel ball end hex wrenches at a drivers raffle at coal miners!

Toyota Trucks of Arkansas FB group gives away three JIS drivers (1,2, and 2 stubby) with a Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG) bag to the most active member each month as a way to promote good Toyota maintenance practices. They have given away 14 or 15 sets so far. facebook.com/groups/ttark

 

[Land Shark]

Toyota Trucks of Arkansas FB group gives away three JIS drivers (1,2, and 2 stubby) with a Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG) bag to the most active member each month as a way to promote good Toyota maintenance practices. They have given away 14 or 15 sets so far. facebook.com/groups/ttark

View attachment 3416177

Hellyeah! @matzell may be something for us to look at down the road

 

[GeoRoss]

I know you love those things, but my Phillips screws were not JIS.

The JIS drivers work well on Phillips screw heads

 

[e9999]

aaaargh....

I did some woodworking yesterday. Unfortunately, I have a ton of phillips deck screws left over so had to use some of those. A freakin' nightmare. Wanted to keep the predrilling to minimal size so lots of friction for better hold, and busted a number of heads. Fortunately, I was using a diamond grit phillips driver, so that thing hangs in there like no other, but even then, unless I remembered to really push the bit in hard and keep it in there hard, there was slippage and head rounding.
Can't wait till I run out of them. Or just uncharacteristically crack out of frugality and throw them away. Only buying Torx and Robertson now...

Hate the things!

(evidently, this is now a yearly rant... don't read any more, it won't change...!)