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.
My GTI had triple-square bolts for the seats. The bolts were maybe 1/2" diameter, and I was able to comfortably get a lot of torque on them. Weird design though, and can’t imagine it holding up on smaller, softer screws
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.
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.
I wish that were the case, but most store brands have enshittified to be made out of cottage cheese. Even robertsons have this issue now if you don’t search around for good brands. Generic trash is trash.
I’m in the process of rebuilding a house and a new shop, and the last time I did this, it was nowhere near as big of a problem.
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).
True, but on the other hand, the drills or impact drivers are also getting stronger and stronger, so it's easier to mess up a screw. And then there's the driver bits, they're so bad these days that every new box of screws comes with a free bit.
I still hand screw things and they still break even with the right size driver, haha. But yes, those titanium coated bits make quick work of aluminum screws.
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’m a millennial, I don’t really recall phillips screws getting universally worse over my lifetime. I’ve torn the drive out of a LOT of them over the last three decades.
What I have seen is Phillips holding still while the rest of screwology improves around them. Take an impact driver and blast in a few 3.5" #10 Torx deck screws, then try to install a Phillips head screw and see if you can keep the word “bullshit” from coming out of your mouth.
There’s also the issues of Pozidriv and JIS, which both superficially resemble Phillips but are different and work VERY poorly if turned with a Phillips driver.
Home appliance enshittification is real though. I’m running my Kenmore 80 series for as long as I can.
Gen Z who fucks with old tech here. Some eras had pretty good philips but im not convinced the head wasnt reinforced compared to the rest of the screw. Id say tech on average philips get worse from about the lste 70s onward, for cars its the mid 90s.
i’d believe it to be honest, problem is phillips is still shit. You put ANY torque into them, you’re gonna need to put a LOT of back pressure on them. Which is the primary reason they tend to strip anyway, inadequate back pressure, causing the bit to slip, getting a purchase on the fragile little corners, and then fucking DELETING them from existence.
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.
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