Post

Phillips were definitely an upgrade over Flathead, but the fact JIS is not as widely adopted (at least in the US) is a tragedy. The torque is way better.

This explains so much! You don't know until you know, thank you for sharing this!

I should really buy a JIS screwdriver Got any recommends?

Replace anything you remove with a Torx, got it.

i've had this problem so many times and now i finally know why thank you

JIS screwdrivers are lovely things that Just Work Better, because they're not designed with the cam action Philips intended. I tend to use my JIS drivers now for everything because they feel so nice.

TIL about something else the Japanese do better than Americans

I prefer to think of that as meditation - like as in 'Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance' One of my many short jobs was assembling motorcycles It was a nice job :)

okay yes i agree with this take

Oooh. So that's why that always happens to me

Makes sense, except they only work a few times for me.

well shit TIL

JIS fits slightly loosely but won't damage a Philips screw. I think there are a few Japanese brands (Vessel is one) that sell only JIS screwdrivers as Philips. It's probably fine.

📌

The JIS system is the same as Phillips except for the shorter nose. The long nose was deliberate to allow cam-out for automated or poorly trained assemblers to avoid damaging the thing being assembled. But in Japan they will assume that the person assembling knows exactly what they are doing.