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I have been picking up Wiha tools here and there, and I only this week finally decided to go ahead and fill in the set. I can't wait for them to get here.

Wiha has been my choice for several years now, but I'm always open to getting better tools. You never have enough tools. :D

Thanks for the heads up Rmin I've been looking to get a good set

[quote="You never have enough tools. :D[/quote]

AMEN!

I posted the original thread about the absolutely useless, poorly designed Crapsman (sic) micro screwdriver, but it got lost when the board went down. As a reminder, the lower part of the shaft on the Crapsman screw driver rotated around the shaft. So, when you tried to apply some torque the stupid thing just rotated around the shaft without turning the blade! Genius engineers. To make the situation worse, when I tried to return it the salesman said the screwdriver was meant to be held with two hands, and then turn... a MICRO screwdriver requiring two hands to operate? Anyway, thanks to tips here, I bought a set of Wera drivers: 2 Phillips #00 one with a long shaft the other with a short shaft, 2 Torx drivers, T5 and T6 (so I will be ready when the Black Arrow arrives) and 2 hex head .90 mm for all those Slot.it grubs. Thanks everyone.

Screwdrivers aren't the only things to which one needs to pay attention.

Most of the supplied grub (or set) screws with hex recesses are cheap and soft. Replace them with aftermarket hardened screws and consider buying in bulk from an industrial supply house for the best deals (the more you buy, the cheaper they are per screw). The aftermarket hardened steel alloy screws are blackened, which is for corrosion resistance and lubrication, and they are usually something like C54 on the Rockwell scale. Stainless screws are much SOFTER, and should be avoided. They're usually something like B80, which is much, much softer than the blackened C54 screws. Plus stainless screws are more expensive! Cheap screws have poor coatings, so the blackening can fill the hex recess making it more difficult to get the driver tips into the recesses in the screws. I've never had a problem with the industrial screws I've purchased, but have had issues with the OEM screws, even those from Slot.it, stripping. I routinely replace all of the screws with what I know are high-quality hardened screws not coming from mainland China.

If you come across a wheel or other part where the screw does not want to go in easily, do not force anything or you'll damage the screw, the part, or the driver tip! Remove the screw and chase the threads with the proper size of tap. Use "bottoming" taps on slot car parts. That style of tap will cut threads further down into the hole than will a taper or plug tap. Some makers don't seem to do a good job of tapping threads far enough to let the screw go down, because it takes more time and special taps to cut threads all the way through.

Always use a torque-setting driver when possible if tightening a screw. The Slot.it driver has the thinnest shaft of any of these tools, and the tip is highly chamfered, and so it will fit where nothing else will do. But my favorites are the Sloting Plus torque-setting drivers; they're all-metal and have replaceable tips. They seem to be made of better material than the Scaleauto variants (which disappointed me -- I found them to have poor quality set screws holding in the shank, and shanks that seem to corrode and aren't as finely machined as the other companies' tools). The torque-setting drivers will prevent you from overtightening a screw. When possible, use them only for tightening, not for removing, because it will put less stress on the internal mechanism, reducing the life of the tool. These tend to have short handles (the Slot.it is positively tiny). Slot.it makes only one, a .9 or .95mm for M2 screws, but the Sloting Plus and Scaleauto come in more sizes, for wider screws, such as the 1.3mm recess for an M2.5 screw.

Plain drivers will vary in the length of the sized tip and the thickness of the shanks; some won't extend as far as you like, into parts such as wheels, because there's not enough clearance for the wider portion of the driver shank. I have several different makers' plain non-torque-setting screwdrivers for hex recess screws. My favorites are the Slot Car Corner (all-metal handles and replaceable relatively long and properly sized tips) and the Wera (which have longer tips than some others, thinner shanks, excellent soft-finish handles, and a great price). Wiha makes two versions of their miniature screwdrivers; their Pico line has a soft-finish handle (thinner than Wera's, though) while the regular line is all hard plastic. But the Wiha drivers have very short sized tips and relatively thick shanks. The Hudy are nicely finished but pricey (they're very similar to the SCC lineup, with replaceable tips and metal handles). The NSR drivers are all metal, with replaceable tips, but they lack a swiveling endcap on the anodized handle, which all of the others in this paragraph have (that's a strange omission for an otherwise nicely designed tool). Felo also makes plastic-handled screwdrivers for hex fittings.

Avoid hex keys. They let you easily over-torque the screws, will bend if pushed too hard, and are generally really cheaply made. If you must use a hex key, the best in the world (and probably the most expensive) are those made by PB Swiss.

Wow, that's a lot of information. As long as it is, its very concise, too. I'm going to copy this into my slot car folder, and I suspect a lot of others will, too. Thanks, so much!

Most of our cars use only two sizes, .050 and 5/64. For the .050, I like the Koford tool. It's $7, and I haven't worn it out yet. The 5/64 has a lot of options, but I like the JK one for the extra reach.

I posted an almost-identical note on a Euro forum. And added this about using the torque-setting drivers only for tightening, whenever possible:

"My recent purchases of some expensive 1/4" and 3/8" drive torque wrenches reinforced my thinking on that! The only time I use a torque-setting screwdriver to undo a set screw is when I'm trying to fine-tune something like the lateral play of a wheel or gear on an axle, but in such cases I don't go to the torque limit of the tool until I'm sure the part is in the right place on the axle. Not only would a more limited use keep the torque setting accurate for a longer period of time, but it should cut in half the wear on the tiny facets of the hex tip of the driver."