phillips vs. roberts

which screw head is better? for a non-slip power driver's use. And what type for shear-resistance? outdoor/indoor etc?

Reply to
Soup Nazi
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I believe the Roberts (square drive recess) is better in many ways. It stays on the driver "no hands" pretty well without needing magnetism.

The recesses "strip out" less frequently than Phillips do, which means the bits will last longer, 'cause they wear when they spin in the screw head recess.

The Pozidrive recess is a good compromise, Screws can be reliably driven in initial assembly with the correct bit, but they can be removed for servicing by anyone with a plain Phillips screwdriver.

McFeelys has a lot to say about square drive screws.

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HTH,

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

Phillips was actually designed to slip out when power driven.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Note that the square drive screws and drivers usually available to Americans are not really Robertson (not "Roberts" ;-).

The patented Robertson driver has a slight taper, and slightly rounded corners. US "square drive" is not tapered and has very sharp corners.

A "fresh" US square drive driver and a "real" robertson screw head stick _so_ tightly that it can take a significant yank to get them disengaged. This is advertised as a selling point of the US square drivers here.

Unfortunately, if you have a pop-out, the driver is usually immediately ruined and is difficult to use from then on.

Real robertson drivers do not suffer from this with Robertson screws. So, while they don't stick quite so tightly, the drivers really do last a long time, and they're just as good at keeping grip under power.

I really don't know how well the US square drive work with US square drive screws. Or Robertson drivers with US screws.

Yeah, extols the virtues of Robertson screws without telling you that the screws you buy from them aren't Robertson ;-) [Or, at least, I don't think they are.]

Reply to
Chris Lewis

Personally I think RobertSON, but if I had my way I'd go with Torx

Reply to
Eigenvector

Depends on who is doing the work. I have much less problems with the square drive, but my son keeps stripping out the heads and driver. OTOH, my son has no problems using the Phillips screws and driver and I keep stripping them out.

Mike D.

Reply to
Mike Dobony

Why did we have only two kinds for so long, and all of a sudden there are many kinds of slots?

Reply to
mm

Hubby: Hey, how come our fourth kid doesn't look much like the others?

Wife: 'Cause he's the one that's yours, dummy!

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

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