Everything You'd Want to Know About Screws

Posted by Alex in Gadget, Pictures on January 4, 2009 at 11:51 am


Instructable user arcticpenguin unraveled the mystery behind various screw types (what? You think that there are only Phillips and slotted screws?). Take for example, the history of the Phillips screw:

This cross drive screw story starts when Henry Phillips purchased a crude form of a cruciform-recessed screw head concept from an Oregon inventor named J.P. Thompson.

Henry F. Phillips (1890 to 1958), a U.S. businessman from Portland, Oregon, has the honor of having the Phillips head screw and screwdriver named after him.

The cruciform shape can be considered to be a cruciform design with their 90 degree shapes as most have similar physics properties.

Phillips developed Thompsons invention screw into a workable form. Phillips had come up with a recessed cross screw designed for efficiency on an auto assembly line. The idea was that the screwdriver would turn the screw with increasing force until the tip of the driver popped out, called camout. When tightening a Phillips screw with a Phillips screw driver you will notice that when the torque gets to be too strong, the screw driver winds itself out of the screw so the screw head would not be ruined or brake off.

Phillips also founded the Phillips Screw Company in Oregon in 1933, but never actually made screws. He had called on every established screw manufacturer in the US and was told simply that the screw could not be made. Screw makers of the 1930s dismissed the Phillips concept since it calls for a relatively complex recessed socket shape in the head of the screw; as distinct from the simple milled slot of a slotted type screw.

Phillips then called on the American Screw Company, a newcomer to the industry whose new president, Eugene Clark, personally became interested in the new product, despite the opposition of his engineers, who like others in the industry had insisted it could not be made. According to one printed report, the president of American Screw Company said: "I finally told my head men that I would put on pension all who insisted it could not be done. After that an efficient method was evolved to manufacture the fasteners and now we have licensed all other major companies to use it." (Source)

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COMMENT

13 comments to "Everything You'd Want to Know About Screws"

  1. Skipweasel
    January 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    And ain't it a nuisance having so many variants.

    Robertson and Torx would cover just about everything except for fine cabinetry, for which slotted still looks nice.

  2. DOJ
    January 4th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    I'm surprised to find they're each designed for specific purposes, and not just a format war.

  3. ted
    January 4th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    Man, after that sexy title, the article was a bit of a letdown.

  4. I C Kook
    January 4th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    This is Kooky. Totally Kooky, I tell ya!

  5. Christophe
    January 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Definitly interesting, but could have featured more info (I sell types not included). I'm waiting for the update he's working on.

  6. SparkS
    January 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Thanks Alex, interesting article. I tried to get the PDF file so I could read the entire thing later but got an error 404. What else is new? GGG I go back to the day when one only needed two screwdrivers. Slotted & Phillips. Even though I found some years later that what I would call a Phillips probably wasn't a true Phillips I still think of them as such. To my addled brain if it's like a minus sign it's slotted, if like a plus or multiplication sign it's a Phillips. GGGGG The slotted/Phillips combo is my kind of screw!

    (when I couldn't get the .pdf file I gave up and said "screw it")

    (bad, huh?)

    Howsocome they didn't mention screws found on ships?

    I C Kook "This is Kooky. Totally Kooky, I tell ya!"
    If anyone would know it would be you. GGGG
    (sorry couldn't help myself)

  7. Jae
    January 5th, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Can someone explain to me why someone would ever want to use a slotted instead of a phillips? I've never understood the use of slotted, except maybe for tiny eyeglass screws and the like.

  8. nihil
    January 5th, 2009 at 10:53 am

    So many screws so little time. There are probably thousands of different screw heads and bits if you consider proprietary and specialty made security screws.

    As a computer tech it's always fun trying to figure out who last misplaced the specialty bit for the tv mountings.

    Also, it is standard knowledge that P-2 and P-4 (typically used Phillips sizes) bits are sentient beings that love to disappear, hide themselves, and otherwise relocated on their own accord to frustrate people needing Phillips bits every where.

    It is also standard knowledge that wherever two or more Standard (flathead) screwdrivers are gathered they will multiply and produce more of themselves and also somehow magically mate with Phillips screwdrives and change them into Standards.

  9. Jacques
    January 5th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    Phillips is crap, long live Robertson!

  10. Wok
    January 5th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    That's screwed up

    ...

    HAH!

  11. Jomark Osabel
    January 7th, 2009 at 10:47 am

    Thanks, now I know there are more than 2 types of screw head. I think i need to learn how to screw more.

  12. Rocky Rook
    January 7th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    This is all screwed up.

  13. Scooter
    January 7th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    I bought some robertson deck screws for my back deck, and i must say I love those things. I almost never had the bit slip which allowed me to give it plenty of torque. They also extracted very well.


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