4500 Drywall screw gun - Discontinued in USA

[Michael Kellough]

@Cheese, are these easy to find or did you have to special order the bits?

 

[Cheese]

@Cheese, are these easy to find or did you have to special order the bits?

They were hanging on the wall at Woodcraft Michael... ...easier to purchase them now than a year from now. Also noticed that Festool offers a version for Torx 20 screws, I wonder what those are used for?

 

[six-point socket II]

Collated OSB (wood panel) or collated universal screws.

SPAX® screws

adunox.com

Just scroll past the first product.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Coen]

They were hanging on the wall at Woodcraft Michael... ...easier to purchase them now than a year from now. Also noticed that Festool offers a version for Torx 20 screws, I wonder what those are used for?

I have them in PZ2 as well; some other OSB screws -collated- with that head too.

Like Makita F-31780;

F-31780 - Schroeflint spaanplaat 4,0x40mm

www.makita.nl

 

[Coen]

I haven't found that to be the case with decent quality bits. The cheapo ones I buy in bulk absolutely yes, I drive them to destruction, but I can't remember the last time I destroyed a good bit in a driver, and I easily go through probably 5k or so screws a year, mostly into very old Aussie hardwood studs. Snapped screws are the real issue there.

It definitely does help to "get in the groove" when using collated guns, to avoid camming out or ruining the nose end, just a little off angle or lack of tension can be costly.

My brother has the 2500 Festool, I have the 4200rpm (previous) Bosch version. Both required insane pressure and then still it cammed out. Was Knauf diamondboard onto 120+ year old bone dry wood, insanely dense and slow-growth. About 25% needed to be driven deeper... which we ended up using the impact driver for.

For that application... I kinda wondered why they don't offer more Torx-head drywall screws.

 

[redcliff]

Will other bits that are 55mm long work? Does anyone have any experience?

 

[Coen]

They were hanging on the wall at Woodcraft Michael... ...easier to purchase them now than a year from now. Also noticed that Festool offers a version for Torx 20 screws, I wonder what those are used for?

Hmm, Festool seems to use regular 152mm bits while Bosch uses oddball 145mm bits.

Having said that; I can't find 145mm TX20. I never used TX20 collated, but lacking the collated one, I have used them with the same machine but one by one.

 

[Cheese]

Thanks for the insight Oliver & Coen...

Just curious how easily those Torx screws release as they don't really "cam-out" like the Phillips and Pozidriv do.

Those collated screw strips seem similar to the Milwaukee ones I use in the Duradrive. The Milwaukee Sharp Fire drive unit was manufactured by PAM which is also German I think.

 

[Coen]

Will other bits that are 55mm long work? Does anyone have any experience?

How did you arrive at the idea of 55mm bits working? Bit holder + bit is way longer than that for single-screw use. See; https://festoolownersgroup.com/threads/4500-drywall-screw-gun-discontinued-in-usa.75732/#post-732977
Looks more like 75mm total.

The 55 in the Festool naming as in "Bit PH 2-AF-55 3x" refers to it's use in AF-55. AF-55 being the adapter for collated screws; supporting screws up to 55mm. The bits itself are marked as 152mm.

 

[Michael Kellough]

How did you arrive at the idea of 55mm bits working? Bit holder + bit is way longer than that for single-screw use. See; https://festoolownersgroup.com/threads/4500-drywall-screw-gun-discontinued-in-usa.75732/#post-732977
Looks more like 75mm total.

The 55 in the Festool naming as in "Bit PH 2-AF-55 3x" refers to it's use in AF-55. AF-55 being the adapter for collated screws; supporting screws up to 55mm. The bits itself are marked as 152mm.

Great info Coen!

 

[six-point socket II]

@Cheese

I can only speak for the depth stop and its use with TX20 drive screws, no issue at all, releases just the same as/ as smooth as with PH/PZ. And to be precise, the screws were HECO-TOPIX-PLUS A2 5,0 X 50, DECKING SCREW, RAISED COUNTERSUNK HEAD, HECO-DRIVE, ST. ( https://www.heco-schrauben.com/HECO...countersunk-head-HECO-Drive-ST-200-pcs./61756 ) By the way, Heco Drive is just another drive type based on Torx … .

I have not used collated TX20 drive screws with the magazine attachment so far. I did look for them back when I built the deck, but they weren’t readily/easily available. I’m sure they could have been special ordered. So I went for single screws + depth stop. That was completely painless as already said.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[leakyroof]

What's our current feelings about buying screws for the Gun. As in, most available, commonly found., etc I still have some Festool stock ones as I never used this drywall gun as much as I thought I was going to when I bought it. But, when those run out... Would be Coarse Screws since I don't work with Steel Studs.

 

[luvmytoolz]

The bits are the same size as for the Makita's. I bought a bunch of after market ones that I've used in the Makita with excellent results so far.

 

[luvmytoolz]

What's our current feelings about buying screws for the Gun. As in, most available, commonly found., etc I still have some Festool stock ones as I never used this drywall gun as much as I thought I was going to when I bought it. But, when those run out... Would be Coarse Screws since I don't work with Steel Studs.

The better quality coarse ones I've found to be the best to drive into anything harder than pine, and are still only around $15AUD per carton. The fine thread ones snap really easily.

 

[six-point socket II]

Most recent ones (collated) I got from Würth. No issues.


Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Coen]

Würth

You never know what you get with Würth. They just use whatever is cheapest for them and supply it under their label. In fact, Würth re-supplied my employer... and the new bins included three different types of self-cutting bolts under the same article number...
They also made up their own variant of Torx, which is annoying too.

Same with corrugated washers; for 3 years you can have them perfectly sharp, cutting straight through the powder coating and the next re-supply you get some kind of pancake washers that doesn't cut through a single sheet of paper.

 

[six-point socket II]

I’ve never had a product from them not working as expected or up to spec. . With one exception, the last batch of ‘wall plug screws’ had some in the package with a seriously damaged head/drive and the stamping off. Not enough of them to bother with a return/ or make a claim, though.

Other than that, I’m extremely happy. And yes, I know that their products can change without notice. I’ve heard that before, I have yet to see it with my own eyes/ experience some sort of ‘failure’ with something that is re-supplied and not working like the product before.

That said, I’m such a small and unimportant low volume customer - the hardware I buy lasts me quite some time and when I re-order, its highly likely already 2, 3 maybe even 4 production runs later. So if they had a bad batch in between, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed.

What matters a lot more to me are their chemical-technical products, and those I’ve never had a single issue with.

Again, I’m a happy customer - but I have an incredible amount of options as well, thanks to my highly valuable network.

What really matters, information wise for this thread, is that the Festool screw gun does not use proprietary collated screws, and most if not all collated screws on the market can be used - obviously except for ‘coil’. I’ve used Adunox, Hilti, Würth, Festool, (…) all worked as expected.

Kind regards,
Oliver