Spoiler
Probably at the hardware store picking up more Phillips head screws.
I think a lot of people who strip screws do so because no one told them that Phillips and Posidriv are different and incompatible
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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They literally don't teach it at school and I'm pretty sure my grandpa couldn't tell the difference either so quite literally nobody taught me until I got a screwdriver kit that had both PH and PZ.
Even worse is JIS, where it seems that its explicit and singular goal was to make a screw that would be instantly obliterated the moment a Phillips driver touched it. Fun fact, JIS drivers work far better on Phillips than Phillips drivers do, and I've yet to strip one since using JIS drivers almost exclusively
Is that what the PZ means, Posidriv?
It's spelled with a z ("Pozidriv"), hence this short form.
And this is why I buy torx acres for anything I’m building myself. Unfortunately most premade things I buy have this crappy screw type.
Phillips is meant to slip, on purpose. It is designed so factory workers in the past, who used manual drives, could quickly assemble things without over torquing the screws. Just go firm and continuous until the thing slips, then switch to the next step, if you have to use force to avoid slip, you are doing too much. It was simple and easy. Pozidrivs are meant to withstand and impart way much more torque, but, they are supposed to be used with a torque limited electric drive. So assemblers, and even robots, can do the job fast and to exact torque specifications. The result is that people use PZ drives on PH screws and immediately obliterate them, because the drive has too much grip. While the PD drive fits PZ screws but won't grip and will slip much more, causing a ton of damage to both screw and drive. It is not entirely the material's fault. Using the wrong drive or choosing the wrong screw head is what usually leads to failures.
The screws included with some items are such pot metal rubbish that they practically strip themselves out. I bought a few assorted packs of hex head cap screws and torx head wood screws so I can replace the included screws when they actually matter.
i love how the head in the before picture is ALREADY stripped
And half the time it came from the factory like that.
If it comes from the factory with such pronounced corners, chances are its a Phillips/Square drive combo. In which case you can use a square drive bit which will drive it without slipping (IIRC square drive has similarly high torque before cam-out as torx). There are a ton of different kinds of screw drives though, the phillips-adjacent ones are under cruciform here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives
Stripped for Your pleasure!
Don't feel bad, it's the PH design who's at fault. For some reason, someone decided PH should have tapered flanks, so that the bit has a constant tendency to slip out of the screw unless you push the bit into it with absurd amounts of force.
The cam out is a feature not a bug for when these were invented. They were made well before we had electric torque control cheaply and easily, so assembly lines developed Phillips to control torque using the driver and fastener. It's literally designed to cam out on its own at a given torque setting.
AFAIK, this is a myth. The original patents don't include the tapering, and someone else in the comments quoted the relevant parts from Wikipedia.
Nevertheless, the tendency of the Phillips screw to cam out easily was later found to be advantageous when used with early power tools, which had relatively unreliable torque-limiting clutches. In this context, cam-out helped protect the screw, threads, and driving bit from damage caused by excessive torque.[4]: 85–86 A follow-up patent in 1942 further refining the Phillips screw design describes this feature and argues that if screw-driving clutches were perfect, a screw recess with zero vertical contact angles (and thus no axial cam-out force) could be utilized. However, it noted that such designs had proven unsatisfactory on assembly lines, as the driving bits would not disengage in time to prevent damage.[5
You're right it wasn't originally designed for it but later patents and iterations on the Phillips head driver specifically designed it in which is where I think the confusion comes from. I had always heard it was originally designed that way but I guess not.
- They're not a great design
- Screws are made as cheaply as possible
- People assume their drivers last forever. Just a tiny bit of tip damage and they're grind up any screws.
- Philips in impact drivers is a sin.
edit: 5. There are different Philips sizes; any Philips will fit in any equal or larger plus-sized hole, but barely engage and both strip the screw and the driver.
- Philips in impact drivers is a sin.
No doubt, but in my own amateurish experience, the only way I can deal with PH is by using a power tool at very low speed while also applying pressure on the screw to prevent slippage (ideally one that also lets you set the torque).
People assume their drivers last forever. Just a tiny bit of tip damage and they’re grind up any screws.
I had honestly never even considered this possibility...
The one on the right is actually "Pozidriv" (PZ), which is a little better than regular Phillips at least.
You're right, I should've mentioned that PH is the one on the left. The pic is from a Wikipedia article that compares PH with PZ.
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure phillips head originated for use in screwable rivets and large screws on automobiles where it was implied that the screw action was a one time deal using your hydraulic/pneumatic screw gun on the assembly line.
If you were to unscrew it, you probably should be using a fresh screwed rivet to replace it.
Of course those days are long gone because of superior non screwed riveting and pretty much everything removable in automotive being replaced by hex for the same reason of phillips being easily strippable.
The standard just stuck around because it was cheap.
Yes, the design is meant to effectively have a torque limit where the driver will cam out before the screw strips.
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I have impact-driven thousands of screws into wood in my back yard in the past 18 months. Over 1,000 of them were 6" (15cm) big guys, along with tons of 2.5" (~6cm) and 3.5" (9cm).
Every last one was Torx / hexalobular / 6-point. When I bought hardware that came with free phillips head screws, I threw that shit away and used my own.
The "feature" that philips head brings to the table makes it worse for just about every use case other than "I own exactly one screwdriver and never want to get another one."
Torx doesn't HAVE to be the alternative. There are many good screw designs out there. It's just that where I live, that's the non-philips choice that dominates the market. Every store has a variety of choices for torx-driven construction screws.
In Canada it's Robertson for construction which is literally a square hole. It works phenomenally well in my opinion especially with drills with torque cutoffs. The only benefit of Phillips or posidrive is the automatic cam-out to control torque, which we don't need anymore with modern tools.
PH itself is not even that terrible - but companies use the cheapest metal you can find to make the worst possible screws with it
Nah I'm buying hex screws/bolts or flathead ones. It is a feature, the feature is: the screw sucks.
I'm buying... Flathead...
Now see flathead is number two on my list of fasteners designed by dark forces.
It's even worse than Philips for power tools.
I'm sticking with Robertson where I can. It's so much better
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