TOPIC:

Good evening,

I just bought a Tamiya T1 weelies and a Neo Fighter. I have not built a Tamiya for many years: 80's and 90's.

What size of screwdriver should I buy for the main philips screws? 5.0 or 5.8? I'm thinking of buying Hudy screwdrivers.

Thank you for your answers.

Good night,

Tontondisco wrote:

Good evening,

I just bought a Tamiya T1 weelies and a Neo Fighter. I have not built a Tamiya for many years: 80's and 90's.

What size of screwdriver should I buy for the main philips screws? 5.0 or 5.8? I'm thinking of buying Hudy screwdrivers.

Thank you for your answers.

Good night,

Tamiya cross point screws are JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), denoted by the dot on the top. Tamiya part # 74007 is probably the best value/most useful, but also look at # 74006 for the occasional smaller screw.

TamiyaUSA and a lot of other sellers refer to these as Philips points, but they're not. You can usually do the screws up fine with them - but getting them out is another matter.

+1. You really want JIS specific drivers to prevent damage to the screw heads. Unless you happen to live in Japan they are pretty hard to find so your best bet it to buy the tools from Tamiya. They are really good quality. I have 74006 and 74007 and those two sizes cover every screw I've needed to install in a Tamiya kit.

I bought a set of these JIS bits on eBay and they are excellent.
You will need a Scredriver for bits as well of course.

I also recommend getting the correct JIS type screwdrivers. I never knew they existed years ago or what the little dot on the head meant but was informed by a friend who works on old Honda motorcycles. Ever since then I have been a convert, I always thought they were just low quality screws before because the heads would round out so easily but no. it's the profile of the screwdriver that makes all the difference, I have the afore mentioned Tamiya ones on my hobby bench and another set from that Anex company at work, every time I see that little dot I know what driver to reach for, they have even helped with screws that were rounded out previously with a regular Philips driver.
I am always surprised how this is not more common knowledge, I asked my Snap-on tools guy about them and he had not heard of them either and when he checked apparently Snap-on doesn't make any. That's hard to believe considering how many Japanese cars and bikes are on the roads around the world. Hmmmm perhaps its a conspiracy......