're-purposing' old screwdrivers

Looking for some advice please.

These screwdrivers have been my faithful companions through several house renovations, car maintenance and numerous other projects over about 20 years.

They are now worn so they are starting to cam-out of screw-heads, and have all been replaced. However, rather than throwing them away, I am going to make the flat bits into mini pry bars by bending the tips over by 45 - 90° or so.

Two questions: what is the best way to bend the tips? I only have a butane blow lamp, a vice and a sledge hammer. Presumably I can heat to a dull red or orange then bend the tips over? Should I then quench and if so, into water or oil?

Secondly, what if anything, could I use the pozidrives for? Are the metal shafts any good to keep in stock for anything?

Thanks.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 20/10/2022 12:00:38

All sorts of uses. Cross points grind one down so that it has a slow taper on it - ideal for "Podging" or aligning two plates together before inserting a bolt. Grind another with 4 tapered flats on it and use it like a bradall to make screw holes.

Grind a 'V' in the centre of one flat screw driver and use it to get tacks out of furniture before re-covering with new material. Van also be used for those cylindrical nuts with a screw slot - use on old electrical stuff.

Thousands of other uses.

Just grind the tips off those Pozidriv ones, John

They make excellent tommy-bars etc.

MichaelG.

Decades ago now I ground one of the blue pozi ones to form a point after the tip broke off in use. Flat blades can be reground, it is useful to have them tailored to fit screws.

I think you would need something a lot faster than a butane blow lamp to heat them for bending if you don't want the heat traveling up to the plastic handles.

Martin C

I'd be seriously tempted to weld modern 1/4" hex fittings onto the shafts of those blue pozidrive screwdrivers.

Still, in my opinion, the best and most comfortable handles for general work. Anything except gorilla jobs, either way.

Genius idea to have different coloured handles to identify the different types of end. Blue for pozi, red for phillips, green for flat. One of my biggest regrets is being too penny wise, pound foolish, and not buying full sets of all styles back in the day. But I had plenty of screwdrivers and other things screaming louder for money.

My failed no 2 posi has a shot taper for alignment duties. Lucked into a new replacement several years after they officially went off the market.

Clive

Converted a couple of nutspinners, using short hex drive nutspinner heads.

I've reground several of the blue handled pozi ones into normal flat bladed drivers, ground carefully so as not to draw the temper. Some I did in the eighties are still going strong today. We used to have loads of RS ratchet pozi drivers used on the assembly lines and did quite a line in re-grinding the tips to flat blades for staff to take home, all came to an end when replaceable tips became available. Probably be banned from doing that these days in case someone hurt themselves and sued the firm!

Even good quality crosshead screwdrivers are consumables. Once they're chewed up, grind the heads off them so you're not tempted to use them and bugger up any more work.

What you do with them after that depends on you; there's only so many small pry bars/podgers/scribes that can be accommodated.

I do like the idea of nutrunners, which would be a good use for some scrap 1/4" drive sockets and a little welding.

I've sharpened a couple of worn out Pozidrives into spike tools. Spikes are useful for aligning holes in sheet-metal and making Meccano models.

Last time I had the back off a washing machine, putting it back on was awkward because the bendy weight of the back caused it to settle a few millimetres out of position. A spike with a handle allows the back to be held and levered into position after slightly loosening the screws, so they can be re-tightened when everything's straight.

Dave

I used a lot of old screwdrivers as the basis for nut runners, using various socket heads for the business end

The blue Stanly ones are the best Pozidrive I've ever had. Still got 4 of them, one is different and more a Philips than a Pozidrive, I'd make sure they are truly knackered before butchering them.

The flat ones can be heated to dull red and bent easily by sticking the end in your vise and pulling over with your hand, a weakling would stick a tube over it for a bit of leverage. Never bothered with quenching etc with small drivers like them.

Last night on Wild Inside on Radio 4, there was a dissection of a stranded harbour porpoise. They sometimes have ear damage and the guy doing the autopsy used a screwdriver to remove the inner ear bones from the skull.

Could that count as 're-porpoising a screwdriver'?

Neil

More seriously... I altered a screwdriver by filing a 5mm hex on the end, as my mini lathe vertical slide has a couple of hard to reach cap screws.

Neil

Try removing all the inspection panels on an aeroplane; using even a slightly worn screwdriver often leads to hours of extra work drilling off the heads, extracting the remains of the screw once the panels are out of the way, and riviting in new nut plates. That's just one of the reasons why replaceable tip drivers became so common, as getting through a few tips on one job, or wearing out a couple by using grip paste(which looks very like fine grinding paste....) is well worth the minimal expense.

Any screwdrivers I buy from now on will be Wera, as they hit the sweet spot of cost, effectiveness, durability and ergonomics.

I have heard if you impale them into a potato, such that the bit you want to heat projects, the fleshy nature of the delicious tuber stops the heat travelling further. In such times of soaring food and energy prices, an adventurous amateur engineer would eat the spud afterwards.

To whom do I apply for my £30 Chester food voucher?

Resting it on a wet rag is supposed to work also, saving the tuber for chips or mashed.

Paint stirrer

I keep one old cabinet screwdriver to open paint tins. Also useful to cut around any skin that has formed, prior to its removal. It is probably 100 years old, I inherited it from my dad, who was responsible for the slimmed and shortened handle due to abusing it with a hammer. I have a second even older one with a square blade that gets occasional use as a pry bar. It is much larger than those in the image above.

With the straight-bladed screwdrivers, what's wrong with touching them up on the bench grinder to make them as-new again?

Or just keep them for rough work like opening paint tins and general prying and levering or scraping work, so your new screwdrivers don't end up in the same state. Used exclusively for tightening and loosening screws, a good screwdriver should last a lifetime of home workshop use.

And if they are old UK or US-made screwdrivers, they will be better steel than today's typical Far Eastern hardware store offerings, so well worth touching up and continuing to use.

Edited By Hopper on 22/10/2022 10:07:12