On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:45:49 -0600, Gary Heston wrote:

In article ,
Stan Brown wrote:

Thanks to those who responded. I need to drill larger pilot holes
than I have been doing and use a higher-quality screwdriver, also
carefully matching the screwdriver to the particular size Phillips
screwhead. And I need to use a lot of force straight into the screw
head -- that may be a problem because I'm not all that strong.

Buy a set of driver bits, and use your drill to drive the screws.
You'll find it's a lot easier and smoother than turning them by
hand. (This assumes your drill is variable speed and allows good
low-speed control; if not, buy an inexpensive drill-driver.)

Thanks, Gary. I had done that in the past and ended up stripping
most of the heads. Maybe it was a bad (cheap) set of driver bits,
because the drill was definitely variable speed.

Understanding that price is no guarantee of quality, about how much
are we talking for an acceptable set of driver bits?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...