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Robertson Screws

stormkroe

stormkroe

Golden Member
No, I'm not talking about the rough draft name of 'Pretty Woman'
If there's one thing that I would regret leaving if I ever move back home to 'Murica from Canada, it's the robertson.
They make phillips look like a quadriplegic ape in the line up for dodge-ball team picks, and flat blades like aquaman.
They 'stick' on the bit so that you can one-hand them even upside down... they just don't fall off. Also, once you've began, uh, screwing them in I guess, the fit just gets stronger. I can literally let go of my drill after putting a screw straight up into a floor joist, and it will hang there from the screw.
Kudos Canadia, you really kicked our nuts with this one. Anyone ever get the opportunity to use a robertson screw?
 
stormkroe said:
No, I'm not talking about the rough draft name of 'Pretty Woman'
If there's one thing that I would regret leaving if I ever move back home to 'Murica from Canada, it's the robertson.
They make phillips look like a quadriplegic ape in the line up for dodge-ball team picks, and flat blades like aquaman.
They 'stick' on the bit so that you can one-hand them even upside down... they just don't fall off. Also, once you've began, uh, screwing them in I guess, the fit just gets stronger. I can literally let go of my drill after putting a screw straight up into a floor joist, and it will hang there from the screw.
Kudos Canadia, you really kicked our nuts with this one. Anyone ever get the opportunity to use a robertson screw?
Click to expand...

What does being in the US have to do with it? My dad's a (retired) general contractor, and I saw them all the time when I was working for him as a kid. Come to think of it, the deck on his house uses them for all of the decking boards.

I thought these things were common?
 
Uh, they sell those at every big box hardware store in the US? I know the guy who invented them is Canadian, but they are everywhere here. Also, many electrical components(breakers, receptacles) use the same square drive.
 
sjwaste said:
What does being in the US have to do with it? My dad's a (retired) general contractor, and I saw them all the time when I was working for him as a kid. Come to think of it, the deck on his house uses them for all of the decking boards.

I thought these things were common?
Click to expand...

They may have been in your area, but overall, they're very uncommon in the US. The only time I've ever seen one down there was inside some electrical equipment that was made in Canada (where they were invented and were jealously guarded by their creater)

Granted, I haven't lived in the U.S. for 8 years now and a lot can happen, but I still haven't seen any on my trips back. Consider yourself lucky 🙂
 
Captain Howdy said:
Uh, they sell those at every big box hardware store in the US? I know the guy who invented them is Canadian, but they are everywhere here. Also, many electrical components(breakers, receptacles) use the same square drive.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. The electrical components have them now because Schneider has consolidated several of it's brands (federal-pioneer is gone) and so all their equipment is now going getting CSA approved. If you see some older electrical stuff on the shelf without CSA, it will all be flat head or phillips.
 
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The main furniture vendor my work buys from uses them, but that's the only place I've seen them. All he had to do was license them to Ford and they'd be everywhere.
 
Arn't those the square ones? Those are pretty standard... Usually the red or green screwdriver. (the colors are normally standard to the sizes). Black, red, green, yellow from biggest to smallest. Of course there are others too but those are the common ones. red and green is typical for electrical. Electrical screws are interesting in that they'll also take a flat or star.

I hate using anything but a square head screws.
 
Captain Howdy said:
Uh, they sell those at every big box hardware store in the US? I know the guy who invented them is Canadian, but they are everywhere here. Also, many electrical components(breakers, receptacles) use the same square drive.
Click to expand...

Yep, my home town is where PL Robertson invented them. He was your typical nutty turn of the century industrialist. They made them there up until about 10 years ago when they moved the foundry to China, naturally. The original office and warehouse are still there.

Phillips screws are garbage. Especially with today's Chinese steel, which tends to be quite soft. Heads strip very easily.
 
lxskllr said:
I don't think I've ever seen one aside from pictures online. Maybe cause you're a yank they made it down south a bit. They look awesome, but I've never had the pleasure of using them.
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever bought anything else if buying myself, and I curse everything store bought that needs to be assembled with philips heads.
 
Square (Robertson) drive screws are all we ever used when I used to build decks professionally here in the US.
 
Everything I buy and use has Philips... I don't think I've ever used the Robertson heads from my screwdriver kits in the past few years.
 
I've used thousands of square and philips screws and don't find one to be significantly better than the other. It really seems to depend more on if the particular bit you're using matches up nicely with the fastener. There is a lot of variation in tolerance between bits and screws especially with the imported stuff.

Now with impact drivers I don't care much about the fastener type. I do like the Deckmate screws that come with bit in each box.
 
I've never heard of a robertson head screw in my life. We have plenty of square drive stuff, though.

I'm gonna start calling torx 'McBoogerheimerschnauzer head'

Humpy said:
I've used thousands of square and philips screws and don't find one to be significantly better than the other.
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Phillips is designed to cam out. Everything else...isn't. That's a pretty fair difference.

But phillips works fine for most applications where you would use a 'screw' and not a 'bolt' (Random FYI: Europeans don't have words for 'bolt' apparently. BMW, Volvo, and others call everything a 'screw'). Other than driving into solid wood without a pilot.
 
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FallenHero said:
No you don't. I just built a workbench with phillips screws using an impact driver.
Click to expand...

A good drill probably would've worked, too. Yeah, you would've had to resist torquing, but the screws will generally go in faster and you won't have to listen to constant BBBLLAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!! (it amazes me how my cordless impacts are louder than my 1/2" pneumatic impact)

But more importantly, hex/torx/square (square>torx>hex IMO) would work a heck of a lot better for doing a deck. Treated lumber and all (plus you'd be doing what? screwing 2x4's to a 4x4 or better?). THEN you'd need that impact.
 
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