On Monday, 16 March 2020 01:29:12 UTC, John Rumm wrote:
On 14/03/2020 22:04, newshound wrote:
On 14/03/2020 14:28, John Rumm wrote:
On 13/03/2020 08:26, alan_m wrote:

Slightly before my time but I believe that was down to a DIY expert
on a TV program of the time.

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


Also master of the spiral ratchet screwdriver. With flat blades.
Obviously everything was pilot drilled *and* assembled beforehand.

Yup, I don't recall seeing many of his programs (A bit before my time
really), but the prowess with the Yankee driver did stick in my mind. I
recall using one for the first time, and being a bit disappointed :-)
But then, I had not appreciated then that for the TV shows all the holes
were pre-drilled, and they had rehearsed the build first - so the screws
already knew where they were going!

Yankee screwdrivers are hopeless compared to even the cheapest cordless screwdriver. It's not just the terrible mechanism, the drill bit geometry was way off too. Plus any sort of powerered screwdriver doesn't work well in an era of mostly slotted screws. It was just better than nothing.


NT