looking for source of cheap square drive screws

I guess we Left Coasters just think a little bit differently than you Texicans, Leon.

So, do you need to buy better bits which don't stick as badly, or do you need to buy cheaper bits which don't stick as badly? Pick one. ;)

-- The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold. -- Glenn Doman

Reply to
Larry Jaques
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Buy harder screws which don't tend to stick to the bit?

-- The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold. -- Glenn Doman

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Tap the screw sideways on a piece of scrap or the ground. It'll come off. Or stick with phillips and/or torx.

I would never suggest that anyone use a flat blade type screwdriver. AAMOF, I believe they've outlawed them in England now.

-- The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold. -- Glenn Doman

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Mainly I can find references to more recent cross-slot designs being intentionally designed not to cam out the Phillips do. That's more recognition of how they work than it is backing up a claim of intent.

Phillip's patent certainly doesn't acknowledge the cam-out. It suggests the design is more effective for high torque (and compared with slotted drivers it is).

The only reference I see to camming action is the claim (about screw and driver meeting):

This same angular formation of both elements is especially designed to also create what might be termed a camming action during the approach of these angular faces toward one another with respect to any substances which might have become lodged within the recess of the screw.

He continues to claim that this action causes the driver to expell any gunk that was in the screw.

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course, high-torque cam-out may have been added in later refinements to the design.

Reply to
Drew Lawson

Correct. A properly shaped bit that STAYS that way.

Reply to
clare

I believe it happens - I just do not believe it was " Designed to do it"

Reply to
clare

I have a bit, I use right now, on a Milwaukee impact screwdriver that sticks inside screws badly. It has seen a lot of wear and tear and when it sticks there is no "wiggling it back and forth". The damn screws won't come off with a hammer! I have to screw the screw back into the hole of a piece of wood and use the leverage of the drill to "snap" them apart.

This is from using the non-Robertson (SquareDrive) screws on the Robertson bit. Impact drivers make this situation worse, faster. The square edged sockets of the screws cut into the taper of the Robertson bit and eventually put notches in the corners of the bit so the screw can wedge itself onto the bit by hooking onto the edges of the notches..

Yeah, even the good Robertson bits need to be replaced every few thousand screws. Funny how the old cheap ones are still working but the new ones, no matter what you pay work for a few weeks.

Don't buy the Robertson coloured bits at HD, in Canada. I have tried a few that came out in the last year, or so, and they are good for a dozen screws and then garbage. Yes, they appeared to have hardened insert tips in them, too and they were about $4 each.

Now having said that I have been using square drive screws for probably

25+ years exclusively except when they are not available. I have no intention of switching.
Reply to
Josepi

Was the name supposed to give us a clue?

Oh boy, how handy, color coded bit drivers: "No Jesus, the fuschia one! How many times I gotta told you, two? You musta voted for Butch!"

Reply to
Josepi

LOL!

Reply to
Steve Turner

Yes! That is a definite maybe. HUH? ;~)

Many years ago I used to show friends how well the SD screws stuck to the driver bit totally unlike a Philips head screw. Almost every time I am on my hands and knees inside a kitchen cabinet repairing or installing brackets for drawer slides the screw sticks in the driver, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.. ER uh I wish these screws did not to this. LOL

Reply to
Leon

Well I think I am buying pretty hard screws, they seem to never misform and I almost exclusively use McFeeleys and Kreg screws. I don't want screws crapping out on me.

On another note and response I mentioned that it may be the heat generated that causes the screw to tighten up on the driver.

Reply to
Leon

Believe it or not I have tried that and that does not always work. Typically I have to drive the screw into a scrap piece of wood and then pull on the drill while working it back and forth. It is not an always thing but it seems to happen when I am inside a cabinet.

I never use a flat blade to insert a screw, I only use it to remove a screw. If the screw needs to be replaced it is with a square drive screw. Big flat blades drivers make decent pry bars in a pinch though.

Reply to
Leon

I guess you have noticed that. LOL Color coded have been available for quite a few years now. Mose of mine from Mcfeeleys are color coded.

Reply to
Leon

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Reply to
Leon

screws are manufactured this way.

Reply to
Leon

THE ANSWER

Taken from

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A "fresh" US square drive driver with a "real" Robertson screw head sticks so tightly that it can take a significant yank to get them disengaged.

I suspect that because many SD screws are imported from the Asian areas of the globe that Robertson stylescrews probably are copied and mixed with Square Drive screws.

Soooo apparently I am wrong about the Robertson being at fault however the Robertson is part of the resulting problem when the SD drive is used with a Robertson screw.

Reply to
Leon

I've found that some things are made so perfectly that they mate too well, so going to a different manufacturer or different grade makes just enough difference to keep it from happening.

If you're -that- upset, go back to using a magnetized bit and phillips screws, Leon.

P.S: Why don't you install dem glides while de top is still off the unit, so you have some room, boy?

-- I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Have you ever had a drawer glide screw "crap out on you"? How dey do dat?

Which begs for a cheaper driver, which doesn't have the tight tolerances kept by the screw mfgr or the good bit mfgr. There will be no interference fit between the two.

-- I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Reply to
Larry Jaques

spin rather than design. When you spin it in and hit "tight", torque causes a cross axial movement of the screwdriver, hence the "design feature" camout. Tool user failure, not the design, is the key.

I dare someone to set up a real torque test of phillips screws and try to prove design on this.

-- I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I hate both. And I have had Phillips stick well enough that the magnet is not adequate.

Nothing is perfect, square drive and or Robertson is the most convenient.

As I mentioned above, repairing slides does not afford the luxury of a missing counter top.

Reply to
Leon

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