3x25mm, TX10
UPDATE: I ran out and went and bought another pack of 200.
this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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(not OP) Because ~~Philips~~ Phillips sucks and I will die on this hill. It is way too easy to cam out and strip the head. It is the second worst commonly used head, only marginally better than the flathead. Pozidriv is better, but only by a little.
Torx doesn't cam out. Hex doesn't cam out. The Robertson head (square cross-section, popular in Canada) doesn't cam out.
I think I've known the truth of this for a while, just somehow convinced myself that torx was harder to come by or something. I've done a lot of DIY and for most needs Phillips is fine (and posi if you have the exact right bit attachment) It's just that occasional awkward one where you end up stripping the head slightly (and end up having to push harder on the drill to avoid this happening) isn't actually as "occasional" as I'd like to believe and was actually quite common, and annoying. Flat head screws should be cast into the 5th level of hell from whence they came. I have no idea why anyone would voluntarily use them, let alone in a situation that necessitates an electric screwdriver rather than carefully carefully doing it manually to avoid the head slipping out of the slot. It's so infuriating I can't believe they exist.
Guess what I'm saying is torx has always kind of been the obvious answer. I had a garden project recently where I needed 15cm screws and only torx variety were available, because they knew you needed the extra torque.
On reflection am just surprised everything isn't torx as standard...
My perfectly factual opinions notwithstanding, there are other factors that prevented the total dominance of Torx, and somewhat kept the flathead around.
~~The first is simple metallurgy. The Robertson was a direct competitor to the Phillips, but punching a deep, straight-sided square hole into the head subjected the metal to a lot more stress compared to the angled cruciform of Phillips. It made the head brittle and the screw worse overall. This is a non-issue with modern manufacturing practices, but it was a significant factor decades ago.~~
The second is a saying that applies to most fields of technology: standardized is better than perfect. I still groan in frustration whenever I encounter a pentalobe or tri-point screw because I never have the correct screwdrivers at hand. It was the same situation with Torx about 10-15 years ago. It proliferated since then, and all of my sets now contain several Torx bits. I believe it will overtake the Phillips with time.
(edit) I was incorrect in the first point. The original square head screw was invented in the USA and used a flat-bottomed die to stamp the recess into the head, which is what caused the brittleness. Robertson's die has sloped walls and a bottom that tapers into a point (like a short obelisk) that mitigated this weakness somewhat. The real reason the Phillips came out on top is because Henry Ford chose it over the Robertson.
Is that what the issue was with Robertson? That would explain a lot. An old coworker described them as the fastest way to shear a head. They did strip out sometimes but usually you didn't have to worry about it because the head would snap off first.