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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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.