Partially stripped phillips? Grab a flathead screwdriver close to the same size and use a hammer to tap it down into the screw head. Twist it out while pushing down.
Here’s a tip for anyone with this problem. Take an elastic band and place it over the devastated screw and try again.
I’ve tried this hundreds of times and it’s never worked.
I posted it above, but the best way is to Dremel with a metal cutting blade to convert it to a flat head.
Source: I used to work for Home Depot and had to fix shit for people all the time.
Of course not. But it’s funny to watch you try.
I’m a screw stripper
How do I tag a comment nsfw
If it’s wrong to be turned on by the sound of a DeWalt cordless drill, then I don’t wanna be right.
total torx supremacy
One of the IT guys at my work is really good at stripping torx, but that’s because he uses a driver a couple sizes too small.
That’s just… Wow.
He needs to get himself an I fixit kit.
torx
That’s a brand name! Just call it hexalobular internal
Torx is a trademark for a type of screw drive characterized by a 6-point star-shaped pattern, developed in 1967 by Camcar Textron. A popular generic name for the drive is star, as in star screwdriver or star bits. The official generic name, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 10664, is hexalobular internal. This is sometimes abbreviated in databases and catalogs as 6lobe (starting with the numeral 6, not the capital letter G). Torx Plus, Torx Paralobe and Torx ttap are improved head profiles.
6alobular brah 🤙
+1 for torx. Have actually snapped screw shafts with those
honestly torx is still garbage. the tiny ones on the bottom of tech products that get cemented in still strip like nobody’s business.
Never have for me. I dont turn til fully seated
I ain’t screwing with half my ass off my seat
Tech products often use stainless steel bolts, which are a lot softer than a normal steel
The poor man’s Robertson
Go back to Canada!
“It’s a Pozidrive bro, you can’t- you can’t just use a… annnnd you stripped it”
Oh, the heads not quite flush, lemme give it juuuuuuust a bit moreahhhhfuck
Maybe if I just stop, align it perfectly, put more pressure behind it and gently start tuuuAHHHFUCKOFF!!!
Life pro tip: If you ever need to remove the beautiful piece of art shown in the post, Dremel with a metal cutting blade to create a flathead screw, then remove it.
I’ve done that. It often works, but you have to be careful not to go too deep, or you’ll just break the compromised screwhead right in two once you start with the flathead.
My dad was a boomer, he insisted that Phillips heads didn’t used to strip out this bad and it’s just that everyone switched to making shit cheap screws out of shit cheap material. He also lived to see the enshittification of appliances from something you buy once in your life to something you buy every five years (at least, according to the warranty) with a nifty galifty payment plan. Walking into home Depot instantly radicalized him.
i’d believe it to be honest, problem is phillips is still shit. You put ANY torque into them, you’re gonna need to put a LOT of back pressure on them. Which is the primary reason they tend to strip anyway, inadequate back pressure, causing the bit to slip, getting a purchase on the fragile little corners, and then fucking DELETING them from existence.
I am old enough to remember when they only had manual screw drivers and thicker wood screws that needed to be pre-drilled and lubed with soap.
Go buy a modern “cheap” wood screw. Not a deck screw. An actual wood screw. Pre-drill the correct size hole, including the countersink, and use the correct size manual Phillips screwdriver. You will never strip out the screws.
Now take a 500 RPM impact driver that has almost enough torque to remove lug nuts, a worn or wrong size bit, and a thin shank screw that was only designed to hold down deck boards and the slightest slip or misalignment and have this photo.
We all do it because it is fast/easy. Just understand that you are doing things the convenient way instead of the right way, and you have to expect the stuff to sometimes not work aa advertised because of it.
I think I’m with your boomer dad on that, though. Screws are increasingly cheaper and shoddier than they use to be, and probably because of the materials used are light and easy to produce. Now, the boomers blame “them dang cheap Chinese screws” but we all know it’s enshittification for the sake of profit (which I guess can and would include globalization of supply chains).
True, but on the other hand, the drills or impact drivers are also getting stronger and stronger, so it’s easier to mess up a screw. And then there’s the driver bits, they’re so bad these days that every new box of screws comes with a free bit.
I’m a millennial, I don’t really recall phillips screws getting universally worse over my lifetime. I’ve torn the drive out of a LOT of them over the last three decades.
What I have seen is Phillips holding still while the rest of screwology improves around them. Take an impact driver and blast in a few 3.5" #10 Torx deck screws, then try to install a Phillips head screw and see if you can keep the word “bullshit” from coming out of your mouth.
There’s also the issues of Pozidriv and JIS, which both superficially resemble Phillips but are different and work VERY poorly if turned with a Phillips driver.
Home appliance enshittification is real though. I’m running my Kenmore 80 series for as long as I can.
Millennial here, too. Phillips screws have been made of fucking cobwebs and wet tissue as far as I remember too.
Your dad is right. I never used to strip out Robertson deck screws. Now, if you’re lucky enough to get a screw in, the chances of getting it out unstripped approaches nil. If I search around and find good brands like Richileu, I don’t have that problem. The shit Chinesium screws at Home Depot today are horrendous.
I’m not positive that this comment is Canadian enough.
He forgot to mention that after Home Depot, he stopped by Timmies on the way to his rec hockey game
Half my laptop’s screws are like that and it drives me insane trying to open it now.
Laptop screws are usually JIS instead of Philips. Get a JIS screwdriver and you won’t have that issue in the future.
Or just stop screwing your laptop and go jis somewhere else
I’m impressed you managed to thread that joke in here.
It was right there in the groove, you just had to send it.
Ugh, I clearly don’t fit here. Going to go for a drive.
Come in, it’s pretty simple… machine. Fuck.
I don’t think there’s enough screw puns to keep going, we’ll have to start rotating some of them back
Canadian invented square Robertson screws are the best.
- they hold on the tip of the screwdriver at any angle
- the hole in the screw head doesn’t get all messed up because you can’t fuck it up.
I wish that were the case, but most store brands have enshittified to be made out of cottage cheese. Even robertsons have this issue now if you don’t search around for good brands. Generic trash is trash.
I’m in the process of rebuilding a house and a new shop, and the last time I did this, it was nowhere near as big of a problem.
Robertson obviously.
+1 for torx being available in america. +1 for robertson existing at all.
skill issue
Get yourself some real screws get yourself roberston
