Thread: PZ & PH Phillips head bits.

Hi Soloist,

PH = Phillips head and PZ = Pozidrive head. The difference in the driver is that on a phillips, the 4 'leaves' that make up the cross are tapered..i.e they are thicker at the middle than they are at the edges, whereas with Pozidrive the 4 'leaves' are the same thickness. This means that if you use a Pozidrive bit on a phillips screw, the bit wont make it down to the bottom of the screws slots ... and if you use a phillips bit on a pozidrive screw, then the 'leaves' will be too thin for the slot at the edges. In both cases you will probably wreck the screw.

You can tell a posidrive screw from a phillips by looking at the head. The pozidrive has little lines between the crossed slots.. sort of making an asterisk shape or like an X overlayed on the + shaped slot.

Sorry if this is confusing.. i just cant think of any better descriptive names for the things I have been calling leaves and slots.. hopefully you get the picture

Having typed all that rubbish, i just looked at Wikipedia and they have a really good article with pictures

Pozidriv - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


As for the screwfinder thing, I have seen these too and have absolutely no idea what they are really for (neither does Wikipedia)

Cheers,

Pete.

All has been explained.

I prefer Posidrive as they give less trouble than Phillips. Trouble is PZ are not always easy to find. Also I have bought packets from Bunnings marked Phillips and they have both types of screws in them - a right PITA.

If you use a PZ driver and PZ screw the driver will hold the screw on tip as if it were magnetic, that was the main selling point when they first appeared, this was back when shops were all using air drivers it was a great feature, I saw these Makita gadgets as well might have to buy one and see what is does.

Thanks for all the responses. I actually jumped on Wikipedia and had a look, it's amazing how much information and history are involved in these fasteners that are used on a daily basis without a second thought..... As for the "plastic finders", I have e-mailed Makita a couple of days ago and will hopefully post up the answer to the mystery of these things soon.

For those that were interested in what the "plastic finders" are, I e-mailed Makite and received the following response, "the finders are to be used with the 50mm long driver bits, they sit on the end and hold the screw you are driving in position so you do not have to use 2 hands when you are driving up into material, eg above your head or into the top of a cupboard, there are better versions of this that we do in 3 different sizes and they hold the screw in position until you have finished the task, where as the finders in the kit are basically used until the crew no longer requires to be held in position." I was pretty happy with the prompt response from Makita.

Originally Posted by artme

All has been explained.

I prefer Posidrive as they give less trouble than Phillips. Trouble is PZ are not always easy to find. Also I have bought packets from Bunnings marked Phillips and they have both types of screws in them - a right PITA.

Are you referring to Bunnings or the packet of screws?

IMHO both phillips and posidrive are far superior to strait slot screws in all circumstances. I often wonder why they stock strait slots which seem to be superceded technology.

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by mudpete

This means that if you use a Pozidrive bit on a phillips screw, the bit wont make it down to the bottom of the screws slots ... and if you use a phillips bit on a pozidrive screw, then the 'leaves' will be too thin for the slot at the edges. In both cases you will probably wreck the screw.

So that's why ..........