Are you screwed?

It can be hard sometimes. Screwing, I mean. I mean, dammit, screwing a screw into something that needs screwing a screw into! Mind outta the gutter folks.


Sometimes that screw just doesn't want to cooperate, no matter how much you cuss and hiss and spit. Turns out, it may not be the fastener, it may be your choice of bit! I'll wait for the gasps and murmurs to die down. Compose yourself, you lot!


Now, if you have the unfortunate luck of dealing with the cursed slotted screw, or "flathead" as it is sometimes called (for obvious reasons) then you are pretty much shit out of luck. Move into the 21st century with the rest of us. Mr. Graham Bell will forgive you. I promise.


If you are using a Phillips head, like most of the sane, free world, you are in luck. Let's say you are using, for example, a drywall (or sheetrock) screw. You are having trouble getting it to go into the drywall, or wood, or plywood that you are working with. The bit keeps skipping and hopping around the screw head all day long, while you round the head out and make the fastener useless.


Or perhaps you are unlucky enough to have a Phillips head self-tapping screw, rather than the hex head that a rational man, a man who knows what he is doing, would use. Get a hex head driver and some screws, you buffoon, this isn't the dark ages. Ahem. To continue...if you are using a Phillips head self-tapping screw, and it just keeps popping off your bit, falling down past your 12 foot ladder to go "pink pink terpink" on the floor, never to be seen again, we might have a solution for you.

#2Reduced bit on the left.

Most Phillips head screws are of the #2 size. Which is OK, except when you are trying to actually drive them, in which case, it's impossible. If you try a Phillips #2 REDUCED bit, you will have much better success. These can usually be picked up individually or in packs at hardware stores for around $1.00 each. The bit is a tiny bit smaller in overall diameter, and focuses more on the actuall, uh...."bitty" part of the bit, the bit that bites on the screw head that cooperates with the bit of the bit that, oh for Pete's sake. 

It grabs on to the screw in a more positive fashion, with much less wiggle and play. The result is more traction, much less screw wobbling, and a faster sink on the fastener. I've even had success using these bits with drywall screws and no guide sleeve, into wood no less. 


If you are having the bit-hopping woes, take a look at something simple like bit size versus screw type. It is a very often overlooked, minor but important detail of fastener work. Hell, I've been as guilty of it as anyone. Hope this helps, and happy screwing! You filthy beast....

Closeup of #2 Reduced, on left.