Never heard of Phillips the screw before. We call it Kreuzschlitzschraube and the tool for it is a Kreuzschlitzschraubendreher, and I think that’s beautiful.
But it’s absolutely fascinating that torx on the other hand is here with its generic name.
Although in my opinion there are three slots only: torx, hex and wrong.
Never heard of Phillips the screw before. We call it Kr💩ube and the tool for it is a Kr💩💩er, and I think that’s beautiful.
I am American.
Not pictured here is also ‘JIS’ or Japanese Industry Standard screws.
They are very similar to Philips, but they’re slightly deeper with sharper corners. They have less tendency to ‘cam-out’ and strip the screw head.
Supposedly the camming out thing is actually intentional design in Philips screws, to prevent screw guns from over torquing screws in early automotive/aircraft assembly lines; but there’s not actually evidence to support that according to Wikipedia.
Not pictured here is also ‘JIS’ or Japanese Industry Standard screws.
Yeah I thought it was funny they got the JIS head shape but not the drive.
They are very similar to Philips, but they’re slightly deeper with sharper corners. They have less tendency to ‘cam-out’ and strip the screw head.
Until you try to drive one with a Philips because who the fuck outside of Japan has a JIS driver lying around, then they strip real easy. Ask me how I know.
Why, why, are there so many different cross-shaped screw drives?
who the fuck outside of Japan has a JIS driver lying around, then they strip real easy. Ask me how I know.
Funnily enough, I only know about these because I’ve got one of I Fix-It’s screwdriver sets with 70 driver bits.
I was wondering why there were two sets of what looked like Philips and went looking for info.
If I could just wave a magic wand and make it happen I would change all screw-type fasteners into Torx and just be done with these problems forever.
Funnily enough, I only know about these because I’ve got one of I Fix-It’s screwdriver sets with 70 driver bits.
I got one of these too, and holy shit is it worth it. Great purchase. I love not having to wonder if I’m going to have the right screwdriver head (generally. Obviously, this thread has taught me that there’s like infinite more types)
Anything in the bottom two rows (other than hex) and you are welcome to curse the ancestry of the person who decided to use that type of fastener.
Anyone know what the heck the Pozidriv/Round Hole combo is for?
Anti-removal/tamper resistant. The angle of the slots make it really easy to tighten, a fucking bitch to remove.
psychopaths
Don’t quote me, but if I remember correctly, that is the larger size where the center is more solid like an elliptical half oval that extends nearly to the tip and the fins of the cross are attached. I think it also has the four Pozi minor points at 45 degrees from the cross. It has more of a spline like structure rather than the four pointed cone of a typical Phillips. That tip won’t fit any other Phillips cross. I have only used them a few times, but have had many driver sets that include them. These type are usually tossed in my misc tools drawers because accidentally grabbing them is annoying…
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Philips are too easy to strip and Slotted screws are rage inducing trying to keep the driver aligned. :(
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You haven’t lived until you’ve put your driver in all the holy slots
Disagree, Torx all day.
Everything should be a bolt head, you strip bolt heads from incorrect spanners or when shits fucked.
Everything else just fails.
Today I had a 10mm Allen key head strip internally because it was just to damn tight from rust.
Bolt heads stand proud. You can’t build a deck with them.
Just extra grippy
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Came here to say this
And “hexagon” is allan key.
SQUARE
You mean Robby
Canadian detected.
They missed one
Slotted screws should have gone away after the 1800s. God, I hate them so much.
And if you lack the screwdriver. So long as the head is not the flat style and you have room. Angle grinder/dremel and everything turns into a flat head screw.
Slot screw head you mean. Flat head refers to a head with a shape designed to go into a countersunk hole.
…no it doesn’t. Flat head screwdriver. The head type is called a countersink or self-setting.
um no, that’s wrong.
You can type “flat head fastener” into google and it will explain to you that you are incorrect. Perhaps you don’t have much experience purchasing fasteners?
The person I replied to edited their comment to correct it.
Translation error
This guide is trash, they don’t even know the proper names.
I hate phillips head screws with every fiber of my being. All they are good at is becoming stripped.
You would be correct. Except philip head screws were never really meant to be removed. They were originally designed to be a simple torque limiting fastener for use on an assembly line to speed up the work. I think the screw type was developed for Ford Motor’s use on assembly lines in the 1920s. The installation tool is meant to cam out of the slots when the screw hits the proper limit. So one and done. The issue is today designers are often too stupid/lazy to not distinguish between assemblies that need to be taken apart to repair and those that won’t be.
And THEN the Japanese walk into this mess by introducing their JIS spec cross-head screws and special drivers. It’s very close to the original philips in looks, but it’s not. It’s designed to not cam out as easily as a philips head screw and be reusable. And It requires a special set of JIS screwdrivers to install or remove. They are commonly found on Japanese motorcycles. Though they have spread and can be found in the weirdest places these days.
So if you have a “philips head” screw you just can’t remove, it just might be JIS. So buy a set of JIS drivers, and look very closely, and “try before you pry” to be sure you are getting the correct fit between the driver and the screw head.
They are better than slotted. The driver always slips and you always stab yourself in the arm, they are impossible to work with. Why were they even invented, what purpose do they solve, it is literally the worst possible way to design a screw.
They are the easiest to machine, so they were invented first. Being first and being cheap leads to abundance. It also means every toolbox needs a flathead screwdriver, and most of those also prove useful as prybars.
Flatheads are typically used in situations where you want to discourage using a driver because it may over torque the screw and cause damage such as in an outlet cover.
The problem you have with slotted screw heads is twofold.
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You buy the cheapest and crappiest set of straight bladed drivers the dollar store sells. Manufactured by some poor Pakistani dude squatting in the dirt and wearing his safety squints and safety sandals as he bashes each one out with a hammer and scrap steel anvil.
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You have no idea that those drivers are actually meant to be fitted to the slotted screw you are working with. Not that it matters, you won’t take the time and effort to do so anyway.
A good set of straight blade screw drivers cost real money. They a forged and then the tips are hollow ground to get purchase in the slot to prevent cam out. Check the cost of a set of gunsmithing screwdrivers. And no one that actually has a set or two of those is afraid to modify the tips to correctly make the screwdriver, (or as the British so elegantly put it-- turnscrews back in the day), fit the slot.
While we have far better designs these days, they are complicated to make and require special tooling to manufacture. And a big advantage to the slotted screw is if you strip out one of those much fancier types, you can often just take a small flat file and pretty quickly cut a slot to try again. (looking at you Philips head).
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Slotted is still useful today, but as a bolt instead of a screw. They are fantastic for applications where you can’t assume someone has a screwdriver.
They work OK as machine screws these days. But I still far prefer socket hexhead screws.
O the other hand, I have dabbled in the gunsmithing repair of old antique firearms. I have a taste for fine old British SxS shotguns. And they often needed repairs to put them back in service. They use nothing but slotted screws to this day.
And honestly, there is something in my toolmaker’s brain that feels so good when I gaze upon a fine old shotgun and see every screw slot is timed to be in perfect alignment and every screw meticulously hand fitted to make it so. The extra time and effort to do that speaks to the care and craftsmanship of the 'smith that built that gun. It’s a level of craftsmanship we no longer see in the day to day world anymore.
I should specify that they work better when all you have is a knife, coin, or cartridge. to unscrew things. My avalanche beacon has a slotted screw for the battery for example, but guns are another one.
Your beacon maybe has a coin slot that’s a more universal type for real emergency things like your beacon or a small child’s battery operated toy.
Pozidrive for the win.
I prefer torx (six lobe in this picture)
Just wait until you have to remove some old slotted screws! Phillips are great compared to them. My house was build in 1925, I think slotted was the only option back in those days…
Found this on Wikipedia “The credited inventor of the Phillips screw was John P. Thompson who, in 1932, patented (#1,908,080) a recessed cruciform screw and in 1933, a screwdriver for it.”
You would think the screw and screwdriver would come hand in hand the same year. But I guess even he struggled with how to not strip them.
Wait, cheese? I’ll take twenty
Screw drive arguments are my absolute favorite, thank you OP for posting such divisive content!
Star bit.
That isn’t a thing ~~~~
That’s what I’ve always called them
I’m just keeping with the adversity of the discussion, so your opinion is inferior to my superior choice of drive and terminology
Same - this will easily be my favorite post of the day, and it’s still early.
RIP
Tag yourself I’m cheese square
If you’re talking about the piefed tags, we need an auto tagger of some sort. I do not use tags for anything outside of AI fine tuning and training. I do not know the scope of use, and creating a bunch of single occurrence tags is beyond useless like what archive dot org has devolved into. We must have a system like gelbooru/danbooru for tags selection and moderation if that is to be sustainable or useful over time… or I simply do not understand the use scope.
Its a meme
The first two are screw heads. The rest are mental illnesses.
Phillips slot is very hand tbf, you have a phillips screwdriver? Good you will have good grip, you don’t have one? Good you will still be able to unscrew that
I’ll give you that but all the others are in my opinion completely unnecessary and just cause issues. To me anything other than a Philips head is completely unnecessary and deliberately over complicated.
No way. Torx over Phillips all day
No because no one has a screwdriver that can fit it, they have to go out and explicitly buy one just so they can undo a screw.
Unless something really super duper seriously needs to stay tightened a Phillips is the way to go. I don’t want to have to start a project only to have to go out and buy something that I’ll only ever use once because it’s some weird exotic screw head. Phillips is what data centres use to secure computers to server racks so it’s obviously pretty good.
I like the sentiment that there should be one awesome screw head used everywhere, even if it wouldn’t ever 100% happen.
But phillips head is garbage. I agree with the other reply: torx all day long. Honestly, many of the others are good designs that could likewise handle a lot of torque with less tendency to cam out. But torx has kind of already become that standard, at least around me in the US.
And, in my experience, it’s proven itself in the field. My non-tech hobbies have involved a lot of outdoor construction this year. I used an impact driver to bury big 6" screws all the way into pressure treated lumber about 1,000 times, and then about a thousand other smaller 2.5" - 3.5" outdoor screws. All of them were torx.
And subjectively, the bit engages like a cylindrical gear but without any sharp corners. It seems like it should be easier to clean a screw dropped in the mud. I’ve had to do that more than once, but I didn’t do a comparison, lol.
