+1 for torx. Have actually snapped screw shafts with those
honestly torx is still garbage. the tiny ones on the bottom of tech products that get cemented in still strip like nobody’s business.
phillips doesn’t scale any better. i’m actually glad whenever i see torx on small devices instead.
Tech products often use stainless steel bolts, which are a lot softer than a normal steel
alrighty so torx screws are just shit in most cases you encounter them
I’d say by sheer count the majority of Torx screws I’ve encountered have been for deck boards, not tiny tech screws. And they were excellent.
Never have for me. I dont turn til fully seated
I ain’t screwing with half my ass off my seat
That’s the whole difference between torx vs Phillips.
Theoretically, you should never break a screw shaft with Phillips because they are designed to cam out before enough torque is applied to break the shaft of the screw.
It’s supposed to be a feature
Still gonna use torx because once a philips cams out the screw as well ss the tool tip is useless
“It’s a Pozidrive bro, you can’t- you can’t just use a… annnnd you stripped it”
Half my laptop’s screws are like that and it drives me insane trying to open it now.
Oh, the heads not quite flush, lemme give it juuuuuuust a bit moreahhhhfuck
Life pro tip: If you ever need to remove the beautiful piece of art shown in the post, Dremel with a metal cutting blade to create a flathead screw, then remove it.
I’ve done that. It often works, but you have to be careful not to go too deep, or you’ll just break the compromised screwhead right in two once you start with the flathead.
That’s a fair point, only just enough to get the job done. Otherwise you’ll have to either tap it out or get really creative with JB Weld and half of another screw.
Snap! Can’t even put a new one in…
My dad was a boomer, he insisted that Phillips heads didn’t used to strip out this bad and it’s just that everyone switched to making shit cheap screws out of shit cheap material. He also lived to see the enshittification of appliances from something you buy once in your life to something you buy every five years (at least, according to the warranty) with a nifty galifty payment plan. Walking into home Depot instantly radicalized him.
Your dad is right. I never used to strip out Robertson deck screws. Now, if you’re lucky enough to get a screw in, the chances of getting it out unstripped approaches nil. If I search around and find good brands like Richileu, I don’t have that problem. The shit Chinesium screws at Home Depot today are horrendous.
I am old enough to remember when they only had manual screw drivers and thicker wood screws that needed to be pre-drilled and lubed with soap.
Go buy a modern “cheap” wood screw. Not a deck screw. An actual wood screw. Pre-drill the correct size hole, including the countersink, and use the correct size manual Phillips screwdriver. You will never strip out the screws.
Now take a 500 RPM impact driver that has almost enough torque to remove lug nuts, a worn or wrong size bit, and a thin shank screw that was only designed to hold down deck boards and the slightest slip or misalignment and have this photo.
We all do it because it is fast/easy. Just understand that you are doing things the convenient way instead of the right way, and you have to expect the stuff to sometimes not work aa advertised because of it.
I think I’m with your boomer dad on that, though. Screws are increasingly cheaper and shoddier than they use to be, and probably because of the materials used are light and easy to produce. Now, the boomers blame “them dang cheap Chinese screws” but we all know it’s enshittification for the sake of profit (which I guess can and would include globalization of supply chains).
Fuck Philips. Pozidriv is so much better.
until someone tries to use a phillips bit on a pozidriv screw.
pozidriv is better, but at that point, just use torx.
I think both torx and pozidriv have their place. Torx for any screw that needs a lot of torque, is in a hard to reach place or for really small screws.
When I have lot of screws in a simple application, like driving them directly into wood, I prefer pozidriv though. Due to the conical profile, the bit just automatically slides in correctly. Also, torx just has way too many different sizes.
fully agree, both have flaws and advantages. but both are better than phillips.
skill issue
Partially stripped phillips? Grab a flathead screwdriver close to the same size and use a hammer to tap it down into the screw head. Twist it out while pushing down.
Mhmm EasyGrip
