Screws
Screws
Comments
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What is this square?
It is called a Robertson not a square.
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Technically Robertson has a taper to it, while square drive doesn't. Though nobody really differentiates it in common usage.
At least with star drive, while they are the same, pretty much everyone calls them Torx.
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It's called Robertson by proud Canadians, in the US, at least, "square" is common. A square drive also wasn't invented by Robertson, he just made the tooling for manufacturing the screws to be economical.
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If you're looking at a guide like this, it's pretty likely that it's because you need to know what to put into a search engine to buy the right screwdriver, so it's absolutely got value to know the name other people are using for a thing and selling it as.
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The perimeter of the hole is square. The hole and driver are a trapezoidal prism.
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Never heard of Phillips the screw before. We call it Kreuzschlitzschraube and the tool for it is a Kreuzschlitzschraubendreher, and I think that's beautiful.
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But it's absolutely fascinating that torx on the other hand is here with its generic name.
Although in my opinion there are three slots only: torx, hex and wrong.
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And who renamed the inbus? This is not a maths class!
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Not pictured here is also 'JIS' or Japanese Industry Standard screws.
They are very similar to Philips, but they're slightly deeper with sharper corners. They have less tendency to 'cam-out' and strip the screw head.
Supposedly the camming out thing is actually intentional design in Philips screws, to prevent screw guns from over torquing screws in early automotive/aircraft assembly lines; but there's not actually evidence to support that according to Wikipedia.
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also relevant Bonus xkcd
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I worked as a supervisor where my predecessor thought square/Robertson were superior without listening to the others who were used to torx. I very quickly changed back to using torx.
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Torx torx torx torx!
I use exclusively torx or tamper-proof torx for my projects and I love it so much.
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Hexagons are the bestagons!
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Calling it a square not a Robinson makes me doubt everything else on this including the ones I know are right.
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in america everything must be named after a company
also isn't it Robertson?
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What is labelled "flat" here I've only ever heard of as "countersunk" and what's labelled as "slotted" I've only ever heard of as "flat head". Also wtf is "PF"?
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I had the same thought! Also I’ve only ever heard “torx” instead of “six lobe” although I’m guessing torx is a brand name.
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PF = Plastic thread Forming. They are basically a self-tapping screw meant for plastics.
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ah ok neat. Thanks!
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The one labelled phillips i only ever heard it being calles "cross" and the one labelled pozidriv i only heard it being called "star" but maybe is just my country
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Yeah, in the US I've only heard "Philips" or occasionally "four way". We say star here also though, but I think for the "six lobe" iirc
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A "cross head" generally refers to the JIS, (Japanese Industrial Standard), version of the philips screw. Because evidently they were too lazy to design something original. They require their own special set of screwdrivers to fit correctly, (the philips drivers are close, but no cigar).
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A square screw is a Robinson, fyi.
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There's some anti-Canadian bias in this chart for sure.
Don't call Philips after the inventor but Robertson after the shape.
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It's less bias and more poor advertising awareness in the US and the rest of the world. Still, it does not diminish the simple effectiveness of the design.
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Robertson
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"No! The RED-handled Robbie screwdriver! And hold the light steady" is like half my experiences with my dad. :-D Such a red-foreman.
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in america everything must be named after a company
also isn't it Robertson?
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"Square"? "SQUARE"??!! Excuse me, we fought a patent war over Robertson drive, and WE FUCKING WON.
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Came here to say this
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And "hexagon" is allan key.
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Square exists. Robertson isn't depicted. Probably because only Canadians and some really odd USA deckbuilders use it.
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SQUARE
You mean Robby
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Canadian detected.
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And if you lack the screwdriver. So long as the head is not the flat style and you have room. Angle grinder/dremel and everything turns into a slot head screw.
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This guide is trash, they don't even know the proper names.
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I hate phillips head screws with every fiber of my being. All they are good at is becoming stripped.
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They are better than slotted. The driver always slips and you always stab yourself in the arm, they are impossible to work with. Why were they even invented, what purpose do they solve, it is literally the worst possible way to design a screw.
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They are the easiest to machine, so they were invented first. Being first and being cheap leads to abundance. Ubiquity means every toolbox needs a flathead screwdriver, and most of those also prove useful as prybars.
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Flatheads are typically used in situations where you want to discourage using a driver because it may over torque the screw and cause damage such as in an outlet cover.
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Slotted is still useful today, but as a bolt instead of a screw. They are fantastic for applications where you can't assume someone has a screwdriver.
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The problem you have with slotted screw heads is twofold.
- You buy the cheapest and crappiest set of straight bladed drivers the dollar store sells. Manufactured by some poor Pakistani dude squatting in the dirt and wearing his safety squints and safety sandals as he bashes each one out with a hammer and scrap steel anvil.
- You have no idea that those drivers are actually meant to be fitted to the slotted screw you are working with. Not that it matters, you won't take the time and effort to do so anyway.
A good set of straight blade screw drivers cost real money. They a forged and then the tips are hollow ground to get purchase in the slot to prevent cam out. Check the cost of a set of gunsmithing screwdrivers. And no one that actually has a set or two of those is afraid to modify the tips to correctly make the screwdriver, (or as the British so elegantly put it-- turnscrews back in the day), fit the slot.
While we have far better designs these days, they are complicated to make and require special tooling to manufacture. And a big advantage to the slotted screw is if you strip out one of those much fancier types, you can often just take a small flat file and pretty quickly cut a slot to try again. (looking at you Philips head).
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Just wait until you have to remove some old slotted screws! Phillips are great compared to them. My house was build in 1925, I think slotted was the only option back in those days...
Found this on Wikipedia "The credited inventor of the Phillips screw was John P. Thompson who, in 1932, patented (#1,908,080) a recessed cruciform screw and in 1933, a screwdriver for it."
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You would think the screw and screwdriver would come hand in hand the same year. But I guess even he struggled with how to not strip them.
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You would be correct. Except philip head screws were never really meant to be removed. They were originally designed to be a simple torque limiting fastener for use on an assembly line to speed up the work. I think the screw type was developed for Ford Motor's use on assembly lines in the 1920s. The installation tool is meant to cam out of the slots when the screw hits the proper limit. So one and done. The issue is today designers are often too stupid/lazy to not distinguish between assemblies that need to be taken apart to repair and those that won't be.
And THEN the Japanese walk into this mess by introducing their JIS spec cross-head screws and special drivers. It's very close to the original philips in looks, but it's not. It's designed to not cam out as easily as a philips head screw and be reusable. And It requires a special set of JIS screwdrivers to install or remove. They are commonly found on Japanese motorcycles. Though they have spread and can be found in the weirdest places these days.
So if you have a "philips head" screw you just can't remove, it just might be JIS. So buy a set of JIS drivers, and look very closely, and "try before you pry" to be sure you are getting the correct fit between the driver and the screw head.
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I'd like to go on record as saying six-lobe tamper can die in a fire.
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Use a hammer and punch to break off the pin.
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Slotted screws should have gone away after the 1800s. God, I hate them so much.
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Okay, now I'm really confused. I was going to comment that the six-lobe shape is known to me as star bits, and then I did a search to see if anyone else uses the name, but these sites say they're 5-point bits, but they're star-shaped, not pentagons. The star bits in my security bit set all have six points, and I've not come across a five-pointed star screw because I'd surely remember being pissed off about them not working. Where/when are five-pointed stars used?
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6-lobe, star, and Torx are all names for the same somewhat common screw type. Torx is a trademarked brand name however.
Separately there's a 5-lobe screw called 'pentalobe' that's looks just like the 6-lobe but with, well..., 5 lobes. It was developed by Apple iirc, to keep people out of their products and make repair harder.
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My previous house had security screens on the windows with screws that I could never find a driver for - it was a few years ago, but I think they were pentalobe with the security nub in the middle. I didn't look too hard though - it was a good excuse to not wash the windows.
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The common hack makes it easier to remember: the common star, or brand name Torx, is the same as a hexagon. If you have a full set of both SAE and Metric star drivers, there is a star that will fit tightly into nearly all hexagon cap screws. If you strip a hexagon screw cap, using a star driver will often work to remove it. This only works because it is the same number of points.
There are many other types, but the common star is the 6 point.
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Anyone know what the heck the Pozidriv/Round Hole combo is for?
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psychopaths
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Don't quote me, but if I remember correctly, that is the larger size where the center is more solid like an elliptical half oval that extends nearly to the tip and the fins of the cross are attached. I think it also has the four Pozi minor points at 45 degrees from the cross. It has more of a spline like structure rather than the four pointed cone of a typical Phillips. That tip won't fit any other Phillips cross. I have only used them a few times, but have had many driver sets that include them. These type are usually tossed in my misc tools drawers because accidentally grabbing them is annoying..
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Anti-removal/tamper resistant. The angle of the slots make it really easy to tighten, a fucking removed to remove.
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I'm looking for a Six-Lobe Tamper Cheese screw.
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Sub to your mcMaster
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The first two are screw heads. The rest are mental illnesses.
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Phillips slot is very hand tbf, you have a phillips screwdriver? Good you will have good grip, you don't have one? Good you will still be able to unscrew that
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I'll give you that but all the others are in my opinion completely unnecessary and just cause issues. To me anything other than a Philips head is completely unnecessary and deliberately over complicated.
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I get a better grip with slot than Phillips, which is good if I'm using an electric screwdriver and want to cam out at a certain torque
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Now I want to see a 'how it's made'.
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Tag yourself I'm cheese square
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If you're talking about the piefed tags, we need an auto tagger of some sort. I do not use tags for anything outside of AI fine tuning and training. I do not know the scope of use, and creating a bunch of single occurrence tags is beyond useless like what archive dot org has devolved into. We must have a system like gelbooru/danbooru for tags selection and moderation if that is to be sustainable or useful over time... or I simply do not understand the use scope.
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Its a meme
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Nice drawing, but how exactly is this a guide?
I would actually love to see explanation of what is best use case for the screws (the first two rows)
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Try designing stuff to share with people in CAD. You'll quickly learn to collect such references.
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You only need Torx screws (six-lobe) The only reason to have a bit set with the rest of the heads is so that you can remove an old fastener and replace it with torx.
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Anything in the bottom two rows (other than hex) and you are welcome to curse the ancestry of the person who decided to use that type of fastener.
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Wonder what the usecase for "H-type" would be
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As written by others: Anti-tamper and proof of tamper. Not only can you make it harder to open the case, but you can also intentionally use bits for manufacturing that are non-standard(e.g. leave a little bit of the inner or outer part out) and when you get a device back that has a fully used screw you can tell the customer to fuck right off with their claim.
Especially for medical devices that is sometimes done - and tbf,understandable as there are devices that really really shouldn't be opened by anyone who is not manufacturer associated.
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Anti-tamper.
I've seen them used to screw together toilet stalls in public bathrooms. Stops bored crackheads disassembling them.
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For vocalists, if the only tool they have is a tuning fork.
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trolling someone
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A mildly tamper proof fastener.
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Anti tamper and devices not intended to be opened. Ive seen them on european power bricks and blocks
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usecase
use-case, right?
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Give me a bunch of flat phillips/slot and I'll assemble the world
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Wait, cheese? I'll take twenty
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They missed one
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Now what I want is a chart of use cases with them all listed in order by usability for each use case.
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A good portion of these are 'security'/anti-tamper fasteners, which basically just means they're intentionally weirdly shapped and uncommon so people aren't likely to be carrying the screwdrivers to tamper with stuff.
Stops things like bored crackheads disassembling the toilet stall in a public bathroom.
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Phillips/square? You mean pre-half-stripped and here I come with a too small screwdriver to finish the job.
Philips/Square/Slotted (all three combined) is really common in North American electrical. Switches, outlets, breakers; all commonly use them for terminal screws.
Great for lower torque applications; you certainly wouldn't use them for like a deck/structural screw.
You can torque a Roberson until either the screw, driver, or motor break
i don't always strip my screws to death but when i do, what the hell do you mean they got the job started for me?