Seeking Decent Precision Screwdriver Set

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:35:14 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

Now you know better than to fool with the likes of Searz, I hope?

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:52:30 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Tom Gardner" quickly quoth:

Except for references to Searz, using hammers on screwdrivers (which are obviously prying tools), and not specifying fabric bandaids, that advice was, as usual, Tawm, excellent. Thanks.

-- Smokey the Bear's rules for fire safety should apply to government: Keep it small, keep it in a confined area, and keep an eye on it. --John Stossel in _Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity_

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:00:28 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, Don Foreman quickly quoth:

All the commas in Brownell's prices mean that their sets are definitely too high, thanks, wicked person.

-- Smokey the Bear's rules for fire safety should apply to government: Keep it small, keep it in a confined area, and keep an eye on it. --John Stossel in _Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity_

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:34:23 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner quickly quoth:

Thanks to all who replied. Yes, I wanted precision (jeweler's) screwdriver sizes and have decided to try out the HF set first.

If it doesn't work for me, I'll move up to one of the General or Wiha sets, if Wiha makes small drivers (00 and 0 phillips for eyeglasses and small electronics back plates.) Links were for larger sizes.

Thanks again, all.

ATTN: Nick, if you're reading this from Germany and whining about it, FOAD,A. It's on-topic, despite your penchant for causing people to rebel and go OT. No reply necessary since you've been plonked for years, ever since you started the incessant whining. I see people still quoting your sniveling to this day. Get a life, eh? And stop posting off-topic whines.

-- Smokey the Bear's rules for fire safety should apply to government: Keep it small, keep it in a confined area, and keep an eye on it. --John Stossel in _Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity_

Whia makes virtually every tip shape and size, I think. I know that my selection if teeny tiny torx for getting into bleeping laptop computers are mostly Whia, and they are good stuff. My present set of small phillips and flat, not so much - I've sheared the tips off some (too hard) and bent others (too soft). Time for a decent replacement.

The Wiha set I noted is the 27 piece 4mm interchangeable bit set, which contains Phillips down to #000, slotted down to 1.5mm, hex down to .050", and Torx down to T3.

#000 Phillips isn't a "precision" size? .050" Hex? T3 Torx?

I have a Stanley set too, looks the same as the link Larry gave from Amazon with the same part number (66-039). They were made in Taiwan and are ~10 years old. I've cranked on them pretty hard and so far they have held up.

Hey Larry, where were yours made and how old are they?

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:56:34 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Leon Fisk quickly quoth:

2 years old from here in Oregano, but I don't see the set listed any more. I rally shouldn't have called the set a POS because it was my abuse which led to their demise, but I expected more of them. The tips held up well, the mark of a good driver.

-- Smokey the Bear's rules for fire safety should apply to government: Keep it small, keep it in a confined area, and keep an eye on it. --John Stossel in _Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity_

Bondhus, bought from my local gun store. I also have a set of (mumble) that I bought from either dillonprecision or midway.

Good and not much money seem to be mutually exclusive. If you want GOOD drivers, go get a set of Starrett jeweler's screwdrivers. Have replaceable blades, too. That's if you make money taking small things apart.

For hauling around, I've got a an HF set that works for a lot of electronic stuff, this one is what I've been using lately:

take a laptop apart with it and the crosspoints don't wear off doing it. Commonly discounted down to $6. The case isn't that durable, the hinges go. The driver and bits seem to be decent quality, which counts more. Not magnetic, the bits latch in mechanically. Good for some things, not for others. Fix is to get a small rare earth magnet and stick it onto the bit.

Stan

[ ... ]

I just reached into my belt pouch, and pulled out (among others) a WIHA PH00x40 and two WIHA PH0x50, along with a 2,5x50 and a 3,0x50 (they use commas where we use decimal points) straightblade, and a 269 UTG/ 04mm (reversible hex-shanked tip in a hex collet -- Phillips 1 on one end and 4.0 straight blade on the other end. The numbers on the straight blades are the width in millimeters. The "x40" and "x50" numbers on the others seem to be the length of the exposed shank in mm, from handle to tip.

I've also used and like the Starrett sets of Jeweler's screwdrivers -- in particular I use them for scraping rust off concertina reeds, since they seem to be the hardest tips of any that I've used.

Enjoy, DoN.

Sears is fine for sockets and end wrenches. Brother just picked up a snowblower today at Sears. Wasn't a lot of fun hauling my 5x8 trailer over with my saturn sl1 in the snow though. Looked like a decent blower. Mine I purchased 20 years ago at same Sears store is still going strong.

Washing machines and dryers aren't too bad there either. Wouldn't buy a table saw or router from them though. As always caveat emptor.

Wes

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 02:53:14 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

Yes, caveat emptor.

I learned the Searz lesson back in the late 70s, giving my pound of flesh (literally) and gallon of blood to the Crapsman gods. Never again for me, and I'll continue to caution those bright enough to listen.

I boycott anything Searz. Why reward the assholes of the world?

Funny you should say that. I recall early (mid 50's) Sears with fondness, but, like you, had a rather bitter attitude towards them by the 70's.

What the hell has happened in our society where profit has become the only objective-----even at the expense of losing good and proper service, plus raising the price on lower quality?

Like you, I've boycotted Sears, although I find myself shopping there on rare occasions, primarily because we have so few choices in our small community.

Harold

I was really curious if your set was made in Taiwan like mine or if maybe they switched sourcing to China.

I tried looking at the image on Amazon's page but couldn't make out that part of the image. My set was marked on the red half of the plastic box towards the top.

A lot of odds & ends that were made in Taiwan a few years ago seem to be better quality than the China stuff is today (shrug).

They just want to stay in business. How much longer they'll be able to do that is now in question.

If you have a better business model for them, one that will really work, I'm sure they'd be all ears. d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:58:30 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Leon Fisk quickly quoth:

I'm almost certain it was a Chinese product.

If you have Mozilla Firefox, download the image color/zooming widget, Colorzilla. Berry berry handy!

Today was the last day of the coupon to get a flooring nailer for $109, so I bit the bullet and went to Mudford for it.

I thought the 93916 set looked great for $10 and got it today at HF. Also picked up a $2 set, 47823 which everyone had said was good. The latter will live in the truck with me.

I think I'm covered, precision screwdriverwise, now.

Thanks, y'all.

-- Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. -- Margaret Lee Runbeck

No biggy, would be curious to know though. It seems like one has to be careful replacing things with what appears to be like parts nowadays. The old tool worked good, the new replacement with the same part number is crap...

I'm an Opera user. Have been for ~10 years or so. I wouldn't want to downgrade to Firefox at this point, not to mention it won't run on this computer anyway :) I just chuck images like that at Irfanview and manipulate it there. I have several neat plugins that I've scrounged which work well. They only had a thumbnail size image though, even when you clicked on the Larger image link.

I'll probably pick up the 47823 set sometime too. One can never have too many little screwdrivers around.

I have a nice set of S-K precision screwdrivers bought years ago that look an awful lot like the Wiha sets. Sometimes the Stanley set works/fits better and sometimes one from the S-K set does (shrug).