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I noticed something while working on my old Kyosho Outlaw Rampage Pro (details in the Kyosho section).

I have harbor freight hex bits, an unbranded metric allen key set, and an old made in USA Craftsman allen key set. Only the Craftsman keys work well, or at all, in the really small 1.5-2.5mm hex head screws. Night and day difference.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Not all #2 phillips head screwdrivers are the same either. This mainly comes into play when you are working with aluminum screws and don't want to create marks.

Scottzone wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 8:38 am
Has anyone had a similar experience?

Definitely. In my experience, the smaller the bit, the more quality matters.

For hex drivers or bits, I like Thorp, Wera, and Wiha.

For phillips screws on import models, they are likely JIS spec. Tamiya makes some but most of mine are Vessel (from Amazon, Japanese import).

Been using my old Team Integy drivers for most of my stuff. There's a lot of hobby specific tools out there that fit hex hardware a lot better than the "L" keys do and last a lot longer.

I use MiP for my RC wrenches, both metric and SAE.

Abbey Tools, Park, Wera, or Eklind for the bicycles.

PROTO for the 10, 12, 14, 17 and 22mm applications on the Toyotas.

juicedcoupe wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 9:42 am For hex drivers or bits, I like Thorp, Wera, and Wiha.

For phillips screws on import models, they are likely JIS spec. Tamiya makes some but most of mine are Vessel (from Amazon, Japanese import).

Yes, I a have a Vessel impact screwdriver. It does fit the screws the best. My Makita bit set seem to all be JIS but they just call it phillips.

Someone who does highly regarded reviews of tools and other similar items is Project Farm on YouTube.


https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm/videos