Hi all, Taken delivery of a Screwfix deal of drill & impact driver.
Same page. Wera, Wiha or Snap-on.
Is it the drill driver or the impact driver that shags the bits - or both?
Two schools of thought here, buy expensive bits like Wera, Weha. IME these tend to shatter rather than strip. I gave up on them after a while. Option
2, buy relatively cheap bits & bin them as soon as they start to strip. Thats what I do.Before I got my autofeed I reckon that putting 1500+ screws into a deck with an impact driver would shag 3 or 4 cheap bits.
Screwfix had some DeWalt ones on special a while ago, so did Wickes. Wickes 'gold' ones aren't too bad for the price.
Just a point, don't use a PH bit on a PZ screw or vice versa - shags the bits in no time.
Only used the Impact so far, great for coach screws in sleepers
Will take a stroll down to Wickes and try theirs
Yes, that was one problem, the other I found out is to use the correct size of bit for the screw, that's what I get for trying to rush a job in the pouring rain.
Ok I'll admit to not knowing the difference between a Pozi and a philips as they just look the same to me and all seem to go in regardless of what bit I use. What is the best way to differentiate?
Steven.
They're normally marked PZ or PH. If you try a new one of each into a new screw by hand you'll feel the correct one fits better.
IME it is always stamped into the side of them - exact characters vary - PZ2 or PH2 - or similar.
To avoid mistakes, esp. in the dark, rain, dirt, etc., I wish they were colour coded - had thought of marking them with a bit of paint - but never did decide which colours/what paint. :-)
You could buy plain steel for one and 'titanium' for the other.
And for the screw, pozi have star shaped lines on the head of the screw, amazing what you can learn when you have to
Darren
Yep but can no one tell what type of screw the bit (or screwdriver) is for when it hasn't got PH or PZ markings? Tis very simple and a damn sight quicker than looking for the marking.
Thanks for the replies.
Steven.
The part and markings at 45deg to the X are a good clue. The best one is to line the bit and screw up and see if they stay in line. This will confirm size and type more accurately. It is just as bad to use the wrong size as to use the wrong type. It is amazing how many of joe pub don't know the difference.
On the screw head yes but not on the driver.
True enough but you've looked at your screw and it has the X on the cross. You have two screw drivers without PZ/PH markings. How do you know which is the pozi one *without* checking the fit?
For ordinary screwdrivers buy the Wickes ones - the Pozi have blue handles, the Phillips have red.
For bits you can usually see the X on the tip.
But how do you know the right "size" - my general rule of thumb is to stick a PZ2 in (providing its a PZ screw), but I don't know how to tell whether to use a PZ1 or a PZ3.
Matt
To me, the PZ1 has distinctly and obviously smaller "fins" on the screw itself. Very obvious. Similarly (but the other way) for PZ3 which are much chunkier.
One point, PZ tends to be found on wooden items, PH on metal or an electrical item. PH if the screw is very small. Self-tappers seem most often to be PH. Difficult to generalise - they always seem to manage to confound any rule of thumb I thought I had worked out.
You look at the sides.. the pozi has parallel faces and the philips has tapered faces. Its the parallel faces that makes pozi less likely to pop out. The extra corner nicks in the screw head are to clear the bits left by the grinder on the screwdriver blade, although with modern manufacturing methods you don't always get those leftovers on the blades these days.
The one with the marks at 45deg to the main X. Compare them, it's then obvious.
Nope and only works with that brand of tool. My red handled screw drivers are flat bladed...
I think you mean screw heads rather than bits?
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