[Larry Jaques[_2_]]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:05:52 +0000 (UTC), the infamous Jules
Richardson scrawled the following:

On Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:08:42 -0700, stans4 wrote:
I dunno, I used quite a few pounds of square-drives putting up a shed.
The drivers didn't wear like a cross-point/Phillips bit would, but quite
a few heads stripped out or screws snapped off without driving home.
This was with decking screws, U.S.-made at that.

Maybe there are quality issues between brands? I've seen it before with
Phillips-head screws, where the amount of material forming the screw can
be a lot less from one vendor compared to another. The 'lesser' screws
just loved to snap when driven in, whereas the ones with thicker shafts
didn't. These days I always buy fastners from real stores (not online) so
I can check what I'm getting.

All the local dealers carry are Taiwan-made GripRite screws. I lose
very few of those, though. I wonder if stans4 was driving 4" standard
tip screws into undrilled hardwood. I never lose screws going in, but
have lost a lot backing them out after they've been in. Half the
tip/screw is usually left in the hole when that happens.


Have a bunch of trim screws off of Fords I picked up in the scrap yard
that had interesting threads, went into plastic parts. Were multi-
start threads, one start was coarse and heavy, like a sheetrock screw,
the other was shallow and thin. Hadn't seen anything like that before.

Seen that on doors before - I think it's so they can be screwed into
different types of material while retaining strength.

As to screw reuse, if they're coated for pressure treated wood use,
they're pretty much a single-use item. Everything else is good for as
long as the drive head is usable. By using good and fresh tips in
your screw- and impact-drivers, you increase that lifetime and save
money down the line. (Tips cost under a buck.) And if there's one
thing I've learned about stripped screw heads, it's that you
immediately pull it out if you get even a slight strip (tip spin in
the screw head) on the way in. Otherwise, you'll get it almost seated
before it strips out completely and leaves you limited or no way to
remove it. This applies primarily to flat and phillips screws, but
other heads can strip, too.

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