Soo… I’ve had this Wera Robertson square driver #2 screwdriver on my wishlist for some time. Sometime last week I received an alert in my cart saying it dropped in price to under $5. Right now it’s $4.45.
I ordered one on Friday, it arrived Sunday, I’ll probably put it to use this weekend.
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It has the typical Wera Kraftform Plus handle, which is made from hard plastic with soft rubbery grip zones. The tip appears to be nicely machined.
I ordered this for use on wood screws. I have a couple of square driver screwdrivers, but it seems I can never find them, so I often resort to using insert bits and bit holding screwdrivers.
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Someone on Instagram asked if it’s stainless. No, it’s not. The red and silver-handed Wera screwdrivers that are made from stainless steel are their insulated drivers, with red insulation sleeves on the shafts.
I don’t remember what the price was, but $4.45 was low enough for me to buy one on the spot. I believe it hovered between $8 and $10 or so.
Model number is 05117684001. Their square drive series is 368. You can find other sizes via the “Buy Now” link. Here’s the #1 driver, currently $6 and change.
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Delivery ETA is currently 2-4 weeks. I guess I’m not the only one who was watching this screwdriver.
The yeti
Robertson bit ?
Adam
I guess that’s why they left me an extra hole in the rack that was included with my Wera Laser tips & Strike Thru screwdrivers. Guess that last hole will be filled with a non-matching square.
Tony
For an additional buck (actually, $1.23 more) you can get Wera’s Stainless Steel version (non VDE) which is in stock for $5.68:
https://www.amazon.com/Wera-05032071002-Kraftform-Stainless-Screwdriver/dp/B00359FB0M
According to Camel, this is the lowest price it’s been.
Leveraging your other post about “when to spend more”, this might be one of those occasions if it saves 2-4 weeks of lead time before shipping. 🙂
fred
I notice that they do not advertise it as a “Robertson” but call it “square”. I’m guessing like “Torx” and some other drive styles , “Robertson” is a trademarked name. Patents have run out – so others can make the drive style – but the trademarks are still protected and need a license to use them. Since on the Wera website – they refer to drivers for “Torx – with a little trademark denotation” screws – I assume they bought a license for that name – but for these they say “for square head screws”
Stuart
That’s my understanding as well, at least with Torx. Could be that it’s square instead of Robertson for descriptive purposes and clarity?
Steve
I have the extra long version of this screwdriver. To be honest, it is a piece of crap, other than the handle.
The tip never fit very well in the #10 x1″ screws and other screws on fittings and screws for box covers. The tip has rounded out significantly enough that i don’t like using it as it drops screws and tends to cam out since it has rounded. This happened in less than a month and a half.
If they had an actual robertson tip, instead of a square recess, i’m sure it would last longer as it would fit in the screw better.
quite disappointed, as i love the handle, but the durability of the tip is worse than klein. Have been using a #2 robertson 1″ insert from lee valley in a kraftform multi driver and it holds up much better, it hasn’t started to round at all and it has been heavily used for the past month.
Kyle Probst
that is correct. Robertson is trademarked and they make their own bits and screws. Everything else must be called square to avoid that. It is one of the best fasteners far as i am concerned
Andy
I thought Robertson were tapered square
fred
The genuine article does look to have a taper. Robertson calls their product’s recess “cling fit”
Here’s a link:
http://www.robertsonscrew.com/Linked%20Files/Robertson%20Fastener%20Guide-e.version_Final.pdf
The yeti
I thought it was just up here in canada we called it Robertson. But the rest of the world found square easier to say and remember . As Canadians we grew up with this screw . It’s more common here for most things than the Philips
Jim Felt
“Robertson” is a tiny division of Warren Buffett’s empire. Interesting. Who knew?
Jim Felt
Once again I’m at a late lunch buying stainless steel screwdrivers I’ve always thought where kinda over the top.*
* But today not so much…
Thanks. Thanks a lot Stuart.
alan
While I love me some Wera, for squares, I ONLY stick with any brands with “real Robbie” bits on them. There is a night/day difference in engagement/use vs. just a non “robertson” bit .
Paul
Yes couldn’t agree more!! Just because it called a #2 square, doesn’t mean that they fit/engage the same way. Real Robertsons as mentioned are tapered, this is a huge design benefit. When required, a great trick is to tap the screw with a hammer to further drive it onto the tapered Robertson drive, you can shake the screwdriver upside down and not have the screw come off!!
Justin
You need to have Robertson brand screws with Robertson brand bits to get that perfect fit. If you have non Robertson brand screws then it won’t matter what screw driver or bit you have. So in fact you might end up with a better bit rentention with non branded Robertson screws with non branded screw drivers or bits due to drive tolerances in the non branded screws. In my experience this wera screw driver works perfectly fine with Robertson brand screws.
Jim Felt
Interesting. Well…
In a couple days the SS “square drive” Weras will be here so I will be curious to see.
Otherwise, I’ve been using both Craftsman (NOS USA versions) and Klein (made here and maybe now there?) for 25 years with both SS and black oxide screws.
Oh. And power tool bits from everyone imaginable.
Should be interesting.
fred
Does that work for third-party “square” drive screws too ? Or does the Real McCoy driver only work best with the Real McCoy screws. We made no scientific study of it – but found that there were some Kreg drivers that sold as having hardened tips – and they seemed to work better/last longer driving Kreg pocket screws in a production environment.
In driving square-drive trim screws – especially stainless steel – we also noticed that some bits seemed to last longer than others – but I really don’t recall which we liked best.
Jim Felt
Fred. Good questions.
And I’ve never seen the words “Robertson” on thousands of SS and black oxide screws via commercial vendors on the West Coast. The US West Coast. The mystery continues…
Adam
I believe my grandpa referred to them as Robertsons, but he also lived in Ironwood, MI, which is a short tug boat ride across Lake Superior up to Canuckastan. He typically did call things by the correct name, and he did love those screws. This was 25+ years ago too
Bradley Hanstad
Thanks, now I have 5 wera screwdrivers from add-on special on order…
https://puu.sh/uSSuS/61e30ce983.png
the 4mm slotted 6″ with lasertip for $2.47 was the best deal of the bunch
Tony
Wow. Thanks for the picture. I totally missed seeing the one for $2.47. I just bought 6 different Wera screwdrivers this morning (all with Add-On pricing) in order to get the final order right at $25 (actually $25.45).
alan
Were there any ever “square drive” screws ever offered in the box stores and or even traditional lumber yards..
The reason I know about ~square~ vs. Robertson was years ago, I bought a Felo and Wiha square and upon using it, I was like WTF. This led down the path of ~real robby tips~ vs. standard squares….
It’s been about 11-12 years now since I switch to GRKS. I still have quite a assortment of square head screws in the stash.
Lukas
The lasertip stainless phillips tips were on sale too. Thanks for the heads up. I picked up a few