Finally! Somebody who's not a simp for Robertson.

Use better screws, don't screw around.

JIS!!!

better screws are torx

Material matters, if you use poorly made screws that's when the head gets blunted.

JIS is only good for being cheap, and only works if you're a precision robot.
You lose the autocentering and overtorque protection of Phillips, without gaining any of the advantages of Torx.
(Phillips has overtorque protection in the sense that your tool doesn't break, the screw does; which doesn't matter if you don't need to unscrew it.)

Better screws are hex. Torx belongs in the bin alongside slotted screws.

Quit screwing around! You all screw around too much!

Philips screws are intentionally made to strip though. Even the best material can't fully offset bad design.

Why?
Robertson is clearly superior. You're not going to strip that, and it holds onto the screw better.

Have you been to a lot of hardware stores with different grades of every of the 257 different types and sizes and thicknesses they carry?

Philips heads are designed to intentionally cam over and limit torque, if you’re using the correct screwdriver that is quite a lot of torque. They certainly have a usecase, but that isn’t anywhere near me. I only use torx.

Unbrako and hex are great for bolts and machinescrews, on small headed woodscrews I’m a firm believer of the torx masterrace.

Agreed

The last time this thread came up there were some convincing comments suggesting that the over torque protection for philips was not an intended feature.

Yeah. Robertson plus an impact drill is some of the most fun screwing around one can do that doesn’t involve OP’s mom.

What makes torx crap? Unlike hex, you can still screw them in if your screwdriver is at an angle, which can be really convenient if you're working at odd angles.

I'll get the torx universal wood and stone ones, thanks.

Newer drive heads have been invented since then

They make hex keys with ball ends to handle that

And when some person inevitably uses a phillips on it, it will look like the picture above.

Yeah but with torx I don't need an extra bit to handle that, it's just a built in feature of the bit. It also doesn't answer why torx apparently sucks? "Hex can also do that if you have a special bit" doesn't make torx any worse.

At least you didn't leave the toolkit in the rain and almost burn the house down by leaving the soldering iron plugged in for a week.

Yes, I'm still alive.

And yes, I used a Phillips screwdriver in JIS and vice versa multiple times.

Why does this exist. Nobody has the driver for it. I could barely find a full size torx I needed for my car.

Robertson is the supreme screw!

I fucking hate torx. The bits snap too often because they don’t cam out. Get some arm strength and keep your bit straight and phillips works great

Nah, Robertson. Torx is designed to destroy bits.

My guess is this is a situation where someone can never find the right size screwdriver

Years ago when working in a boat shop at a “yachting center” aka “dudes with 20’ sailboats they’ve spent more effort repairing than their marriage” and I had a full wall of hardware.

An old school wooden hardware shelf.

My favorite thing ever in my whole life was being Willy wonka with fasteners and my rolly ladder

Torx drivers are cheap and rubbish, but ooh boy, Philips is the worst.

Robertson is great though

Or the right size screwdriver and apply force down onto the screw as you turn

And yes, I used a Phillips screwdriver in JIS and vice versa multiple times.

That's totally fine actually

HA! Amateurs.

Why are they called after the brand of a kitchen blender, anyway? I call it a "plus head"

Alternatively everyone has the driver for it...

Given they are eventually putting the furniture together. It's just they never get it apart but frankly that's a problem for future me

I was going to say "don't screw up".

Torx often ends up being the worst of both worlds imo. It grabs too hard and you can easily overdrive it and strip the hole in some material. And you can also still easily strip the head if you don't get the bit seated all the way. I think the Robertson combo head is the best all around, since you have a Robertson bit for high torque applications and a Phillips bit for low torque and slightly off axis work. And then the "ecx" bit for "I'm going to friction weld this terminal screw shut" applications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

Check out the Toque Test Channel on Torx drivers. The companies have different patterns for their heads with different advantages and disadvantages.

Philips is bad. Pozi-Drive screw with Philips head is awful.

Torx is great until you can’t really see the bolt in question and think you have the right bit but actually it’s slightly small and rounds off the bolt entirely.

It is a good idea in general though.

I read that back in the day when mechinised fastening was needed they didn't have a way to track the torque on screws. So rather than have the machine over tighten and break the head off the screw, the Philips head would fail first keeping the screw in place

Our new screwdrivers have Phillips tips that meet JIS standards

New; not 40 years old. But I mostly use my relatively new toolkit now, so I'm pretty much fine.

Torx plus is different than torx in that the tips are thicker which makes the rounding off much harder to do

Because Philips screws were supposed to cam out, to stop overtightening on airplanes.

Maybe we shouldn't use Philips screws for non-aviation purposes.

I thought the whole “JIS is different from Phillips” thing was a misunderstanding and JIS is just a type of Phillips or something and it and “regular” Phillips are more or less compatible

Edit I found this: https://www.tekton.com/blog/jis-vs-phillips-screwdriver-tip-geometry-and-fastener-compatibility

As someone who has spent far more time than I want to think about removing screws and bolts that other people fucked, Robertson is the second most popular fastener to get brought to me with Torx in hot pursuit.

Philips head screws that are messed up come in two types. Soft cheese metal versions and the insidious Japanese style that are just ever sooo slightly different and require their own special driver. And most of you can't tell the difference or even care.

Plus, Y'all buy cheap ass "turn screws" as the British used to call them. When you buy dollar store quality tools you deserve what you get and I don't feel sorry for you.

Why would it be a separate bit? Most people I know just have a set of these

But still not impossible. Realize the incompetence of most people.