Oh wow, a coffee-maker/fax-machine. I’ve used, collected, lost, sharpened, broken more drill bits and drivers than I can count. I’ve never wished for a worse drill bit attached to a worse screw driver.<p>I bet they’ll sell a lot of these to homeowners with deck projects, or small softwood projects, and I bet they’ll work just fine for that.<p>The use case limits how hard they can make these. Absolutely the philips head will get munged being used as a drill bit, and then it’ll cam out of screws at the wrong time. If your driver bit is much harder than your screws then the screws will get stripped. A stripped screw in something important is worse than a broken driver.
50% savings seems very optimistic. If you drill all your holes, switch once, then drive all your screws, there's only a few seconds this thing can possibly save you. Then you consider that it takes a smidge more effort to drill with this sub-optimal bit, and it's really a stretch. There would have to be some aspect of the project's assembly sequence that required you to switch multiple times.
Given how easy it is to blow out a Phillips head with a drill and a bit that's not perfect, and given how much difference a good 135 degree jobber bit from a reputable manufacturer like Norseman makes, I can't see this being very good at either in a real world scenario.
This is the industrial equivalent of DIY-why?!<p>FWIW, woodworkers that care about speed for these operations (mostly niche furniture assembly) do them in parallel and simply have two drivers or use nail-guns with "glue nails".
You can poorly drill a hole with a lot of things. Looks like there's a fair bit of pressure required to actually use this thing as a drill bit.<p>Of course, the main use of this is to drill a lot of holes and drive fasteners at the same time... for which you would want Torx/Robinson/etc and a better drill bit. What everyone does now is just carry two tools, a drill and an impact, clip to your belt, and switch as needed. If you want to carry one tool that does both okay-ish, get an impact driver and a set of impact drill bits. You can quick-switch them pretty fast and you can even do it one-handed.<p>I've never used it, but there's also the "WORX Switchdriver."
Woodspur torx, self-piloting, self-countersinking screws:<p><a href="https://cdn.axminstertools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/6aa9e1e59bcc5998e1687ab5ba3e27a4/5/0/503323_xl.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://cdn.axminstertools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/6...</a><p>The tip is scalloped and sharp for precise driving and piloting, the threading is also sharp, as is the profiled head which does a very good job of counter sinking into soft timber.<p>They are so sharp in fact that it’s very easy to accidentally drive them an inch deep. Comes wax lubricated in zinc plated or A4 marine stainless for external use.
This seems like it would be a disposable item once the tip wears, at least more disposable than a regular bit. Sharpening seems like it would be difficult and time consuming, if that is possible in the first place.
Anyone who cares about speed is using nailers or screw guns. Or has a drill and an impact driver.<p>This really just turns one problem into a bunch. I'll point out the significant ones haven't seen so far<p>1. It has no self-centering capability, because you've removed any split point<p>2. The hole diameter is massive compared to the screw head you can drive because of how it must be designed. Either you are limited in the minimum size of the fastener (IE it's bigger than you want), or the drive is smaller than you want.<p>Example: Let's say this thing will drill like a 1/4" inch hole and then you want to use a 5/16" fastener in that hole. You'd normally have a t-40 head on that fastener, but they literally can't. The width of just the inset torx portion (IE with no accounting for the bit taper and such) is > 1/4" (it's 6.6mm), so they have to undersize the drive. Probably all the way to t-20, maybe t-25 if they are lucky.<p>That's insane.<p>There is maybe a small range of diameters that hit the right sweet spot.<p>3. The effective point angle here is basically unusable for anything but soft to medium hardwoods. On top of that, because of the flutes they removed, and the fact that it is hard to keep sharp, it will cause more tearout.<p>This will be made worse by having an effective 4 flute head instead of a 2 flute one. If this was in a drill press or a machine, it would be better than the 2 flute one, but in a drill/driver it's just going to add a lot of chatter and increase tearout.<p>It's the same effect that happens if you try to use a 4 flute or 6 flute countersink in a drill driver vs a one or 2 flute one. The extra flutes make it worse because you can't hold it rigidly enough<p>4. Drilling and driving are very different applications - you aren't driving the screw in at 2000rpm, and you aren't trying to drill with super high torque.<p>Expect to either snap lots of screws, or break lots of drills, depending which wrong tool you use :)<p>5. As it dulls, it will not just lose the ability to drill, but will start very quickly slipping when you try to drive the screw.<p>6. It is impossible to sharpen without custom jigs or automation.<p>There are useful drill+something combos, but i do think we found them all already (IE drill+taps are useful, as are drill + c'bore and drill + c'sink)<p>I don't think this is one of them.
I'm picturing someone holding a screw by the shank to drill it into the wall, but slipping and puncturing their hand with the bit. There should be no cutting edges with force applied in the direction of your body parts.<p>I might be atypical here but I rarely drive screws without a preplanned hole that's typically made in batches using a jig or machine, like a router or press. I rarely need to drive a screw directly into a random hole I just made.<p>If I'm constructing ad-hoc, I'm almost certainly using nails. Not only for convenience, but because they tend to be better suited to this kind of construction. An exception might be drywall screws, but even then, you've got a totally different system established for doing that.<p>I don't see the use case here. I'm also kind of stuck in my ways, though. I'm open to this making sense, but I'm definitely not an early adopter.<p>I think I might have thought I wanted this before I learned to plan my builds better.
The diameter of the drill bit looks too large to be used for drilling pilot holes for screws compatible with the Philips head. Apart from Philips being a terrible choice for anything really.
That drill diameter is way too large for the screw he's driving with it, the threads have barely any material to bite into!<p>screw pilot holes are supposed to be smol.
This is one of those things where you end up with a suboptimal drill bit and a suboptimal screw driving bit. That said, it might sell in stores for your average homeowner to have around.<p>In a prior life, for a number of years, I designed and built television studios (think datacenter, but more fun). In this context, aside from the technical equipment design, installation and commissioning, we often had to install highly customized pieces of technical furniture. Being an entrepreneur, I was not going to let a potentially nice profit center get through my fingers. So, we jumped right in to design and fabricate custom studio furniture for our clients.<p>We built hundreds of pieces over many years. The very issue this specialized bit seeks to address was present every day, during building and installation of nearly everything we built. The simplest solution was to always have two tools: A drill and a driver. Sometimes you have two or more drills, each pre-loaded with the required bit size. The single driver could drive any screw, so you only needed one.<p>That worked very well. To this day, decades later, that's exactly what I do when I work on any project, be it furniture making for home or home remodeling. It works. It's simple and you save a lot of time.<p>We also tried various versions of quick release drill-bit and screw-bit holders. They work, but it is far easier to have a power drill and a power screw driver and just go.<p>Oh, yes, and the drill bit portion of this invention is likely terrible, particularly if you need some degree of precision. There's a reason drill bits have a sharp or somewhat sharp point. And, for the same reason, this bit is likely to tear-up screws.<p>Side point: I rarely use Philips screws any more. They absolutely suck. Torx is the way to go. You can but Torx head construction screws at Home Depot these days. They are strong (drywall screws suck), easy to drive and can even take the abuse of an impact driver if you need to go faster.
Cute. But 3/16" is way too large a pilot hole for any reasonable screw. I think a #24 screw, which is the largest size of wood screw, has a 3/16" pilot size... and uses a #4 Philips, which is not the bit on this thing (and is sufficiently rare I don't even have one.)
Doesn't really save 50% of the time if you have both a drill and an impact driver. And I'd rather use a drill to drill and an impact driver to drive, even though both tools can technically do either task.
Not loving this. It looks like it would walk badly on anything but the softest woods as I don't see any kind of centered tip.<p>Secondly, the head of a screw is by necessity much larger than the body. So you're going to end up drilling pilots too large for the screw, or else have an extremely weak bite on the head and round it out with any torque at all.<p>Changing bits on a modern keyless chuck takes about 5 seconds. Throw one in your lips while you use the other. Or if you're like me and find yourself a power tool hoarder, just use a separate drill or impact for each.
There was an era when this might be feasible but since shrinkflation and the dilution of the alloys in screws, this would immediately ruin all the threads on the heads of screws. I have to be careful with screwdrivers I get from dollar store nowadays because after a few turns, the screw becomes stripped. This does work both ways where wood is as flimsy as cardboard and I can drill with a regular Phillips bit. The Consumer Protection Agency is a joke and if they actually did their jobs this invention would be a breakthrough.
Here’s a better gadget that can quick flip between a countersinking drill bit and a bit driver. It’s modular, adjustable, maintainable, repairable:<p><a href="https://www.montanabrandtools.com/products/modular-drill-and-driver" rel="nofollow">https://www.montanabrandtools.com/products/modular-drill-and...</a><p>If you’re doing large amounts of countersink fastening into hardwood (where self-piloting will split and self-countersinking will splinter) then you’ll go through drivers and drills real fast.
It's criminal that Phillips is used in any construction whatsoever, and it should practically be a IRC/ICC code violation to use it in framing.
This would be semi-useful for one single thing: drilling a 3/8” hole in gypsum board and inserting a drywall anchor, then using the Philips bit to drive a screw. Even then, I’d still swap actual bits.<p>In every other case, a 3/8” diameter drill bit is going to need a fastener with a ridiculous diameter, large enough to have a bolt head head of a Philips head.<p>I would never buy one of these, let alone for $20.
1. That pilot hole looks way too wide for the screw that follows it. A pilot hole should be wide enough to prevent binding, and sometimes for guidance or to prevent splitting, but it still needs to be tight enough so there's plenty of friction so the screw doesn't work loose.<p>2. Phillips needs to die. Maybe he can make that bit in Robertson. Or nearly anything else, really.
I don't see it.<p>- I think self drilling screws are much more of a timesaver.<p>- Drill driver combis cannot have the same durability than separate bits, since driver bits are made of softer or at least more springy steel than drills.<p>- Also the sharpness of the combi can be a problem for the screw.<p>- Also torx bits will not jump over, while philips will now and then, and hence wear out more quickly.
Mansfield's dual-drill also had a go at this non-issue.
I had the opportunity to use it years ago. A bit cluncky and not really an improvement.
<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XLdAhQ-Hyac" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XLdAhQ-Hyac</a>
Interesting concept but 50% saved time in the video is exaggeration - when you have 10 holes to drill and screw then just first drill 10 holes, change ending in your tool and then screw 10 holes. If you doing this whole day then have just 2 tools - you need this at least for backup if one tool breaks.
lol, this reminds me of the point (heh) of philips screws - the screw will cam out (strip) to prevent over-torquing of the screw.<p>Now it will just strip and then drill out the screw itself.<p>personally I go the OTHER way - I like to use a decent clutch setting and better exact driver <-> fastener connection<p>like: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N2KJY77" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N2KJY77</a><p>or torx / star / allen depending<p>closest I've gotten to multi-use driver bit is the flip phillips <-> flat double-ended bit and similar (just so I can carry one driver around sometimes)
Floor wax and dessert topping, all in one!<p>More substantively this is too big a drill bit for the pilot holes for the screw size it fits... so it won't act as a tool-change timesaver.<p>Also, forget phillips for new construction. Torx is much nicer.
was so ready to be snide and dismissive
but that thing is tool kit magic
not to mention is removes any excuse for just jamming screws in, without pre drilling
50% is an underestimate of time saved
its also interesting in that there are very few true inovations in wood working , as the high point in wood technology is behind us, and the skills and knowledge are far less common today.
Rewind 100 years, and peoples lives were constantly dependent on wooden structures holding together, cars, airplanes, ships, train bodys ,bridges, were made from wood.
In the demo video, are those pilot holes? How well does it start without them? And is he pushing more than he'd have to with a normal bit, to get it started?