How to repurpose a Philips head screwdriver?

[Uncle murph]

small ones sharpen to a point and use for marking metal for cutting. big ones sharpen to a point and use for aligning holes to fit bolts in.

This,except I like to heat them up and bend a small hook on the end.Extremely useful and use one almost daily.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Some of you guys must have lots of free time, even good screwdrivers are cheap enough to replace if not under warranty. Just toss em, good time to try another brand, sorry, can’t have too many tools, lol,

 

[JradM]

Seems like the best suggestions have already been made, but they're easy to convert into custom picks too.

Grind the ends sharp and bend them into whatever hook shape you find handy. Easy to "heat treat" just the tips with a propane torch and some oil.

In addition to rehandling ratchets and other tools, you can put them onto extensions to make socket drivers.

 

[Zeus36]

A long screwdriver makes a good thing to stir quart cans of paint and stain and is easy to wipe off.

Cut/grind the tips flat to make pin punches

Cut the shafts up to make pins

Grind to a point to make a scratch awl

Repurpose for file handles

Drive them in the wall to hang cords on

Cord hanger. Best one that I would never have thought of!

 

[question guy]

Give them to your 15 year old daughters boyfriend for Christmas with a card explaining how her grandfather used to repurpose old screwdrivers as wood chisels in his coffin making days.

 

[Bockscar]

Some of you guys must have lots of free time, even good screwdrivers are cheap enough to replace if not under warranty. Just toss em, good time to try another brand, sorry, can’t have too many tools, lol,

I think a lot of these ideas were made from necessity....when you need something you need it now and don't have the time to wait and buy it....so you make it....when I was a rsod tech for forklifts I welded a screw on the end put the screw driver through a socket and made a lil slide hammer to pull seals out with....sometimes you do what you gotta do and make a nifty tool in the process

 

[Bubba Fett]

I have an old Stanley Phillips driver that I use to make holes in drywall. Perfect for when I need to work quietly or don't want to get the drill. I did nothing to the tip, but it works.

 

[seber]

Do you heat as you bend? I have snapped screwdrivers before trying to bend them.

Yes, heat to about 500 degrees with a propane torch and quench in oil or water when done to reharden. That will get you very close to the original tempering process.

 

[dchawk81]

Perhaps the attitude that old screwdrivers should be repurposed is somewhat responsible for the plague of disorginazation which has infected so many of us, including me, so severely.

If one keeps the worn out screwdrivers and buys replacements it will not be long before you are drowning in screwdrivers. Each of which will take up valuable room.

You really can have too many tools.

Blasphemy!

 

[dchawk81]

I don't paint, but when I do (I don't) I use them (I don't actually) to stir paint.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Heat & bend the tip to make a pick tool or pin/clip puller.

Or if you can weld, use your imagination.

 

[f121]

Car key (remember those?)

 

[question guy]

Very nice

 

[Schurkey]

you can put them onto extensions to make socket drivers.

Their finest use. Especially since commercial socket drivers are tending away from the female square-drive in the handle end--or the female square drive is not connected to the shank, so when you use it the plastic shatters. But how many socket drivers does a person need? One in 1/4 square, one in 3/8 square...1/2 drive is just silly.

 

[p00p]

poor mans skewers or grind the tip flat across rendering it one more chance at being a "converted" screwdriver.

 

[dchawk81]

Car key (remember those?)

The only thing missing is "Ford Family of Fine Cars" etched in the handle. The more crudely the better.

 

[Eli D]

I remember an old practical machinist article that showed regrinding a Philips on the corner of a wheel