What would be better - a set of screwdrivers or a set of removable heads for one screwdriver?
I'm working on getting a decent toolbox for home and I just have several regular screwdrivers so I'm wondering what you'd recommend. Obviously I'm not a professional and I'd be using those for small repairs and furniture assembling at home.
>>1017363
Handle with multiple bits. Get a very nice handle that fits well in your hand. Bits are disposable. You will lose them, break them, and buy more. Make sure the handle accepts standard sizes. In my experience ratcheting handles aren't that useful. The old Easydriver is the only time I've liked a standard ratcheting screwdriver but they don't make them anymore and the knock offs are crap. Bit storage in the handle is also pretty useless. I like handles with solid cores. None of that rubberized plastic shit like in your picture.
Both.
Get a set of common size long shank Phillips and flat drivers. Maybe six of each.
And a set with a thousand small bits. Phillips, Flat, Torx etc in all the sizes.
>>1017363
Secret technique I just learned in the last couple years, watching Midway USA and Clickspring.
Get your box of cheap hex bits, and grind the straight slots to the exact size of your screws if you don't have one. Bits are cheap and replaceable. Or find the exact right bit and label it. Like I just labelled the bit for my 1911 stock.
Hex screw drivers are amazing and in most instances there is no reason to not use them. I got a hex torque screwdriver, as well as adapters for my big boy torque wrenches.
The only problem for deep precision screws and nuts you still need a tool with a profile that's no bigger than the screw head.
You could just go down to the store and buy whatever precision screwdriver set, but that's usually the ones with the bright chrome handles and shit machining that your dad had. Fuck those.
Features your need in your precision set:
-A free spinning butt. So you can apply pressure to it while unscrewing so you don't screw your thread.
-A hex shaft, or a hole in the handle so you can put a lever in it to turn it. With a hex shaft (A small shaft, not like the replacable hex tool, I mean the hex shaft is the exact same diameter as the tip and is continuous and goes all the way into the handle) so you can put a wrench on the hex shaft and apply torque that way.
I got a cheap brand that I was pretty happy with hex shafts for my precision set. As I chowder the heads up, I will replace them with Wiha or something. I just reground the big phillips since that sees the most wear, and see if the new edge is good enough, or if it's time for a new one.
I also recommend buying a set that comes in a nice case. Losing your precision set by letting them float around the shop individiually sucks.
>>1017387
If you have a straight slot that isn't quite the right thickness, you can take some off the tip of the bit, and since they are tapered you will get a snug fit. If the blade is too wide, take a bit off the edge.
If it's too narrow... don't use it. Get a wide one and grind it down to fit.
Using the right sized screwdriver with correct technique is amazing and stops 99% of all chowdered heads.
>mfw my straight slot screws stick to my drivers without magnets.
>>1017391
Wow, this is useless for those of us who travel and work.
Thanks for nothing.
Also, what are you guys working on that still has flat head screws? Torx>hex>Phillips>literal shit>flat head
>>1017442
Fucking read the thread, jesus Christ.
>Op is a home gamer
>At home
>Not moving
>Not a professional
>Could easily get a bench grinder or belt sander at home because it's so damn useful.
Then you come in with your heat literally so far up your ass you have almost come out the other side and could breath into your own trachea.
>Muh inferior straight slots
>Muh travel and work
>Muh professional
Yeah, okay, what the FUCK are you doing in this thread? If you're a professional, bring your own screws when you need to replace one, and have the appropriate screw drivers available for your work, if your industry isn't a piece of shit you only need a dozen to do everything you're going to come across and have the exact right size.
>What are you working on
Like I said you illiterate fucking monogolid, guns. Like OP implied with his Winchester brand screwdriver (lol).
Every screw in every gun I have is a straight slot. They are easy to machine and have high torque, and if you know what the fuck you're doing, they are fine, they don't strip or mar, or jump out of the bit at all. You're just too fucking stupid to use a screwdriver I guess.
>>1017442
Also, you don't have a fucking file and sharpening stone?
>>1017363
Hex bits are nice in a pinch and would cover many applications. But too many times I find the hex and hex holder too wide for whatever I'm trying to screw. So honestly, both.
>>1017363
Bits for the majority; have at least one flathead with a long shank (mostly useful for prying more than as a screwdriver) and one of whatever your most common local woodscrew is (here it's PZ2; might be Phillips where you are) for access to sunk screws. Add to the long shank set as necessary.
>>1017442
Well, you have been riding a seat=less bicycle for too long it seems
>>1017371
This
Also get insulated screwdrivers for electrical stuff.
>>1017591
Get a fucking prybar you mong
>>1017491
>Hex bits are nice in a pinch and would cover many applications. But too many times I find the hex and hex holder too wide for whatever I'm trying to screw. So honestly, both.
This is what I was going to say.
The problem with hex-bit mini screwdrivers is that a lot of times with tiny bits (especially in electronics items) the deep hole that the screw is at the bottom of,,,, is not much wider than the head of the screw itself. You can't reach it with any hex-tip setup....
>>1017740
>Also get insulated screwdrivers for electrical stuff.
You can, but,,,,, they aren't really needed for lower-voltage stuff.
Just shrink a bit of heat-shrink tube around your non-insulated precision screwdriver shafts. Ta-da!
>>1017363
If the bits don't fit inside the handle like a 5 in 1, I wouldn't get it. You're bound to lose some.
>>1017363
Wiha makes a nice set with about everything. If you won't shell out for Wiha just get ifixit or kobalt or whatever. They're the only halfway ok ones outside With I know of that have basically every bit.
They have diffrent uses.
I built a couple workbenches, I used removable bits. Soon as I chewed up one (using a drill, rather than a proper driver) I'd swap it out with another and keep going.
>>1017453
>Every screw in every gun I have is a straight slot. They are easy to machine and have high torque, and if you know what the fuck you're doing, they are fine, they don't strip or mar, or jump out of the bit at all. You're just too fucking stupid to use a screwdriver I guess.
For guns and any slotted screw, hollow ground bits or screwdrivers are the way to go, hence the common usage of "gunsmith" screwdriver for hollow ground screwdrivers. Gun screws are typically quite short and exposed sufficiently that other screw head styles aren't more useful than a slot. They don't tend to rock enough to make a slot inconvenient.
Newer guns have slotted screws by custom and for field repair (you can grind one common screwdriver into a smaller size on fucking pavement if the alternative is "you not dying"). Older firearms used them because classic firearm designs often predate other screw heads and Phillips and Reed and Prince are designed for mass production ASSEMBLY rather than ease of maintenance. Allen and Torx heads weren't even in the picture.
For guns, use what gunsmiths use. The trade is fucking hundred of years old.
For anything else slotted screws are typically inferior. They serve for carb adjustment screws because the slot is natural for screws adjusted in increments of a turn.
You can mod the tip of a hollow ground driver or bit by further "hollowing" it slightly if you have a fucked up screw that otherwise gets wiped. I use a Dremel to mod screwdrivers for pulling motorcycle carb jets. If you grind the tip so it looks like )( from the side, that bottom edge will dig into the soft screw instead of smearing it. My gunsmith bro turned me on to that trick
For electronics long screwdrivers beat bits because the shanks are narrower.
>>1017363
Depends on the use. But generally I use a $20 ratcheting screwdriver ("Master Mechanic") or some shit from True Value and one of the literally thousands of bits I have lying around between here and my truck. It's extremely well made for what it is (steel gearing, thumb rachet wheel as well) and a hollow handle. (Really dense ABS or some such, makes a decent light hammer also, hah.)
The only time I use normal screwdrivers are like the weird specialty electronic shit and sometimes I'm too lazy to find the 4" torx bit of the right size in my box of shit.
>>1017363
A set of screwdrivers.
One with multiple heads is OK if you're a part time DIYer who doesn't want to invest a lot of money into a good set of screw drivers.
I look out for offers. Stanley had offers in the past for 15 screwdrivers for about £10. I buy a couple of sets because they're always handy to keep in different places.
I have a set of multiple bits for security screws I rarely use.
For torx I bought a set of torx sockets that are better than screw driver bits so they're easily used with ratchets and impact wrenches.
