On Mon, 26 Dec 2016 19:35:10 GMT, Doug White
wrote:

David Billington wrote in
news
On 26/12/16 19:12, Michael Black wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2016, Doug White wrote:

For many years now, I have always used the black handle Xcelite
Phillips screwdrivers with the chrome shaft & black tip. I
outfitted my electronics bench with a fresh set a few years ago, and
the #1 Phillips tip is already toast. I took apart a dead stick
vacuum cleaner today that had a dozen screws down in holes, and I
had to get my other #1 driver from my woodworking toolbox to finish
the job. It is also showing signs of excess wear on the tip.

Isn't the issue that there is some Japanese variant of the Phillips
screw, called something else, so while nominally a Phillips fits it,
it's not really a match?

So either you can't open the screws, or it ruins the screwdriver in
the process.

Michael
Are you thinking of a pozidrive screw, if so a Phillips screwdriver
shouldn't be used. See
http://bsfixings.uk/the-difference-b...and-pozi-screw and
http://mechanics.stackexchange.com/q...it-a-bad-idea-
to-
use-a-pozidriv-screwdriver-on-a-phillips-head and others. They're
commonly mistaken and the wrong drivers used with the wrong screw
potentially damages both the driver and the screw.

The screws I was working on this morning appear to be Phillips. At
least there is no sign of the extra cross in the heads. I'm not sure
how common Posi-Drive is these days. I tend to buy most of my hardware
from McMaster Carr, and it's all regular Phillips. They don't even list
Posi-Drive as an option, and they have quite a range of drive styles
available.

It's possible that I've run into some Posi-Drives in the past, but the
vast majority of the screws I see these days are plain old Phillips. I
think Xcelite just isn't very careful with shaping the points on their
drivers. Either that, or the screw manufacturers are making a lot of
"Phillips" screws with shallow sockets. Or both...

Doug White

I think it is both. Crappy Chinese screws built to miss a loose
standard combined with the same philosophy in building screw-drivers.

Actually many of the "international" screwdrivers are closer to a
Frearson or Reed-Prince driver. The Frearson (reed prince) has a sharp
point on the driver. Reed-Prince (Frearson) screws have a sharp square
corner on each quarter of the head, while a philips has a rounded
corner. A PoziDrived has the 4 light lines to identify it.

The drivers are NOT interchangeable.

Then you ban ad the JIS screws - The B1012s which are used on a lot of
Japanese equipment - if not too tight a Philips driver will work, but
the strip out if too tight. Actually closer to the Frearson driver
profile. but the Frearson cross slot is of a smaller diameter than the
JIS.