As I've posted above, I have both Wiha and Ace Hardware precision screwdrivers in racks by my train bench. However, the posts about JIS screwdrivers intrigued me. I've had many situations where it was difficult to remove certain "Phillips" screws or they got stripped. So, I started researching the JIS drivers. A couple of things came up right away........most people aren't aware of their existence and.......the Vessel brand seemed to be VERY highly rated. I called Vessel with some questions and spoke to an extremely helpful rep.....Larry Knight. He made some recommendations and I ordered the following sizes: 00, 0, 1, 2. 3 They arrived yesterday and I'm extremely pleased with them. I immediately tried them out on a variety of screws in my trains and compared them to my Phillips sets. In every case, they locked into the screws better. I have one particular MTH engine that has always been a problem with slippage in removing the shell screws. Gone! I included the #3 for my snowboard binding mounting screws and it worked great on that as well. The handles have terrific grip and have a knurled collar to aid in spinning the screws. And a magnetic tip. Nice
Larry had given me a 15% discount with my order. They generally do large volume orders and I was grateful for the treatment I got as a small customer. I told Larry that I was going to post my "reviews" of the drivers after I received them on the Forum and that was how I had initially learned about them. Turns out that Larry is a train guy too and said that he would give the same discount to any OGR member. The order code is 154OGR.
Below are some photos of my driver racks (as well as the new one I made for the Vessels) as well as a photo of the 5 in the set.
-Roger