i am not sure this is the place to post this topic but i have to vent,is it really 2010? why is it that manufacturing companies keep making philip and, flat headed screws instead of robertson.life for the installer would be made easier. i am sure most would agree,any one who has put up a ceiling fan or, worked in a difficult spot on a contactor trying to put that little philip screw in.i am really supprised they keep making them.

with 17 different screw head types I long for just one uniform style

The worst seems to be the combo straight, phillips, robertson like they use in device mounting screws. Couple that with a soft metal and it is really easy to strip them out.

I met a carpenter who uses torx head screws with a driver. It looked like it might be better then either Robertson or Phillips. Flat is for the home owner who only has a butter knife.

I got a box of Torx deck screws and I am convinced. You can't strip out the heads before the screw breaks (as long as the bit is still OK) and they give you a bit with each box of screws. I have been shooting these in 40 year old Southern Yellow pine that is hard to drive a nail in.

Agree with the torx deck screws, best type since sliced bread, and yes...a good bit is the key.

I favor the square drive that most of the panel mfg's are using, cuts down on the bits us inspectors have to carry, yes & I don't like flat heads.

Such simple hardware is typically manufactured in China right along with the rest of the mechanism.

The nicer designs are still under patent, and the Chinese cannot successfully export them into first world markets.

In the third world, generally, there is great poverty...

Meaning that the 'tradesman' is often an uneducated bloke with one plier and one screw-driver -- straight blade -- and the export manufacturer dumbs down his fasteners so that his product has universal installation appeal.

The feelings of trade sophisticates are of no concern. You're not the guys holding the buying pencil.

maybe someday they will change,do away with flat and philip screws. here hooping.

I'm used to seeing screws that take either the flat or philips screwdrivers; I have started seeing a few that would also accept the square drive (Robertson) scredrivers.
Maybe that's the answer...that way you could use whatever you had in your belt instead of carrying 3 tools depending on what you had to open up.