Thread: JIS screwdriver who knew?

Tweet

Well after 55 years of life and an unknown number of striped phillips head screws on stereo stuff and other stuff I have tinkered with, a Marantz stereo repair friend clued me into the unknown JIS screw which looks like a phillips head screw. Turns out you can tighten either one with a JIS screw driver without stripping off the edges of the head of the screw, but not so with the phillips. I just bought two of these screw drivers and am amazed at the tight fit now that I know what I didn't know!
Here is a pretty cool diagram that show what I'm talking about. JIS stands for Japanese Industrial Standard.

Amazon sells the drivers relatively cheap and this brand works great!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also if you look closely at a screw if it has a dot on top it is a JIS screw

Another cool thing about this particular screw driver it it has jaws on the tip that instead of shreading, improve screw grip and protect the screw, the tip is also magnetized, and lastly the shaft has a textured grip portion that allows you to rapidly spin a screw in place on longer screws. As I get older I am really appreciating have tools that make life easier!

Thank you, thank you!

I've been looking for a European (metric) phillips.

Glad to help!

there around 40 different screw heads . in the old days it was phillps and apect that gave us fits. i learned to file the point off phillips screw drivers .

I love Amazon, it's on the way.

I have a couple filed off Phillips in my toolbox. I hate Phillips screws, give me a Torx bit any day.

Neat information! I haven't had to deal with any of it for years but what was that weird British standard hardware we used to have to contend with?

(If anyone sees my memory laying around could you please send it back to me?)

Dave, are you thinking of whitworth threads? where would you have run across that?

OH, I think my dogs are playing with your memory here in the living room!?!?!? Sorry.

Yeah, that was it, Whitworth threads! Once upon a time I worked with a guy who did restorations and repairs on some of the old exotic British pieces. I also got to do some work on some of the old English bikes. It was interesting, I'll give it that!

Whittsworth is on of a few types of square thread which is used primarily for linear movement. The square profile provides more contact area and improved linear action.

Pretty well all nuts and bolts on our Morris Minor are Whitworth, I did have a complete set of Whitworth spanners/sockets etc., but my bloody kids biffed them in the river because they reckoned they didn't fit anything and were therefore useless. (Yeah...they're still alive...just. I think She Who Must Be Obeyed would've been a wee bit upset if I'd killed them.)
But over the years I've managed to accumulate another complete set from second-hand shops and the like.
They're pretty rare; just about made of unobtainium.
And the kids now know better than to biff them.