I just saw a home improvement tip that might work

[Vic Smith]

Yup. With the right bit on a new screw you can hold it almost sideways and it won't fall off the bit. Too big, too small, forget it.

[nestork]

The new LOX screw drive:

Or, Robertson rethunk.

[The Daring Dufas]

It only works in bagel materials or as an oxidizer when used with rocket fuel. ^_^

TDD

[Dan Espen]

If you don't push hard, you don't reach the metal walls of the depression. If you do push hard, the rubber still collects in the bottom of the depression. Still blocking entry. Or the rubber comes apart ending up doing nothing.

[krw]

LOX makes bagels too crunchy.

[krw]

If I'm buying the screws I prefer Torx but I agree that I'll use whatever. Philips does have the advantage of camming out rather than breaking. Drywall screws, of course, are Philips.

[krw]

Not buying that, either, but my comment has nothing to do with Jesus.

[The Daring Dufas]

Hum, there's something fishy about that. O_o

TDD

[Nate Nagel]

Some of us still have oooooold cars!

You could chuck up your suction cup on a stick into an old eggbeater hand drill, or even a small cordless, if you wanted to make the job go faster :)

nate

[Jon Danniken]

This thread is sure spawning some interesting replies....

Jon

[The Daring Dufas]

It is showing some fertile thinking. Of course someone may chum in and ruin it all by laying an egg. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I wish I had my 64 Valiant and 65 Dart with the Slant Six and automatic transmission. I even had a full sized 63 Dodge with a 225 Slant Six and the darn big old hunk of steel would get up and go. I also had a 64 Dodge cab over engine pickup, the pickup made on the van chassis with the cab forward and engine between the front seats like the van. It had a Slant Six and was a neat little truck. The vehicles were simple and easy to work on plus they rarely quit on you leaving you stranded. All you had to do was keep them serviced and the critters would run forever. I miss those old crates. ^_^

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

Farther north of you, the DOT salts the roads a bit much in the winter. We still have drivers who don't know how to handle road conditions. Even with all the salt and sand, people still go off the road, wreck up, and so on. So, the vehicles from the earlier years all disappear in a pile of rust and decay. A lot of folks have historic cars, but only drive them in good weather with no road salt.

. Christ>

[TimR]

Yes. Phillips screws are intended to cam out to prevent putting on too much torque. If you need more torque, like on an electrical connection, Phillips is the wrong choice.

[Nate Nagel]

Ayup... female type I dated for a while had a '69 Valiant (in the late

90's - early 2000's) and literally all the work that was done to it over a period of about 5 years was that I rebuilt the front suspension (bushings were dry rotted so an inspector failed it for that and tie rod ends) she put new tires on it and once when it sat for a couple weeks I had to replace the carb because dipping the original carb in cleaner to clean it out revealed that the jet block was disintegrating. She never set the valve lash and had a heavy foot so somewhere in there it got a head rebuild. Oh, and the usual ballast resistor replacement. Other than that it basically took gas and oil and just ran, we drove the snot out of it. It was registered as a regular old car and passed safety every year. Wish I knew where that car was today; I'd have bought it off her when she was done with it, but apparently she got offers on it all the time and just took one, and I apparently wasn't near the top of her "favorites" list at the time.

nate

[clare]

And the "go forever" is just faulty memory. VERY few lasted 100,000 miles without major engine work. I had a lot od old Mopars in my day - '53 Coronet Red Ram (hemi) , 57 Fargo 261? flathead, '63 Valiant 170 slant six, '69 dart 225 slant six, 1975 Dart Sport 225 slant six, 1976 Ramcharger 318, and numerous later mitsubishi-based 4 and 6 cyl vehicles. The red ram was purchased with a blown motor at 100,000 miles and it had been apart previously. The Fargo had 225,000 miles on the clock when I sold it - head and valves had been done at least once while I had it, and who knows what in the first 20 years of it's life.

And the mopars were the GOOD vehicles back then

[krw]

Which is why Phillips are so common in electrical wiring, right? ;-)

[krw]

My pickup's back end completely rotted (leaf springs were resting on the frame) because of the 6-7 years in the VT (and a year of NE OH) salt. I just replaced it with a '13. No salt down here[*], so I should be good for a good long while. ;-)

[*] The drivers are worse, though.

[Nate Nagel]

I'm trying to think of where they're common in electrical work and I'm not thinking of many uses. Typically the box screws and the screws on the side of devices are either slotted (old) or combo head (modern), and those are the only places you could even use a Phillips driver. Cover plate screws are traditionally all slotted, and most of the circuit breaker screws that I've seen are Robertson.

nate

[krw]

Every outlet in my house has a Phillips head on the terminals. Well, it's a combination Phillips/straight, I suppose. IIRC, the breakers, are, too.

Robertson breaker screws? Never seen those. Square head (not sure it's Robertson) on the panels, sure, but not the breakers themselves.