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Comment by hunter-gatherer | Hacker News Reader

I've done a decent amount of remodel work and new builds. The workflow you've described rarely plays out in real jobs. This combo bit looks particularly useful for building things like decks.

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Why not use deck screws designed to self drill? They work fine for boards you’d use on a deck.

This driver/drill bit is strictly worse than the alternatives. Most homeowners doing any building other than drilling a few holes for photo hanging will probably have bought a drill/driver pair from Ryobi or something anyways, so you don’t really need to swap bits.

Would you use Philips head screws for a deck? I wouldn't. Even square drive is a pain if you need to back them out for any reason - you're sure to round out one in 20 or 30 of them, then RIP to any time you saved. I pretty much exclusively moved to star drive.

I can't believe people use anything other than Torx or something equivalent, especially for outside work. The difference between crappy regular wood screws and a box of GRK or Deckmate is night and day.

I used to think of Torx as the best until I met a French Canadian who dared me to use Robertson (square).. I did, now I'm all Robertson. The screws stick to the bit before putting them in and always come loose after. Torx acrews often sticks to the bit when they're in. I also seem to need less of a variety of sizes compared to Torx. But hey, I'll take Torx over Philipps any day.. Not sure why those are still around.

Robertson is much more prone to camming out, especially when trying to remove them after they have been in place for a while and a little gunk builds up in the square.

Is that not the case with torx? I could suppose not.

I've been using Robertson but I don't often build stuff.. yet..

For star drive, the force is transferred between the walls of the bit and the walls of the screw flush against each other. Like with gears. This leads to minimal wear and allows for wide tolerances and sloppy angles between bit and screw.

Square bits on the other hand drive the edge of the bit against the wall of the square hole. The edge can cut a circle into the screw, and the square head gets turned into a circle by wear. Thus required tolerances are much lower, and screws don't fall off the bit. If they did fall off you'd know to change the worn bit.

Is there any reason the design can’t be adapted to a star drive? Is there not enough clearance between the points on the bit or not enough room for clearance with the extra drill flutes? Is it too flat on the head compared to phillips?

This design hardly works with Philips..

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