best mini electric screwdriver?

[coppercone2]

I like these electric screwdrivers. The chinese ones with the rechargable battery or lithium, the AAA ones seem to break really easily, but they do have brass gears inside like a old watch. if you are gentle they will serve you well but its easy to break.


I like the electric one with a clutch. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LPYPTV9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Just don't drop this one on a hard floor, it seems pretty good but its fragile. The wowstick is good for doing mini wire terminal blocks and stuff like that, but you always need use a normal screwdriver by hand at the end to make sure.

The wowstick is also good, I had that one for a few years too and its more durable to drops.


What are the best ones? I see some advanced ones have a tilt control, I don't like this at all.


This is discussed sometimes on the forum but it seems alot of time passed since the last thread and maybe they have some new options.

[M0HZH]

All I can say is that I have this and it's crap:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PYQZWHG/

The torque setting is all over the place, half the time it doesn't stop when it should; it's also too noisy for what it is. On the plus side, it does charge quickly and over USB-C.

If there is something decent out there for decent money, I'm interested as well.

[coppercone2]

the one I linked has a mechanical clutch but its pretty weak and IDK how accurate it is, and you need to fiddle with it a bit because I noticed before I added some high quality oil, when it was set to high torque, then set to low torque, it would seem to have a split second region of high torque... might be enough to damage a tiny plastic thread if its crossthreaded.


when I added some silicone oil and played with the torque setting alot, it seems to have gone away. but regardless if you need absolute lowest torque, hold it in your hands and let it snap once after adjusting the clutch.

maybe it was just bad grease from storage

Like, do that procedure if your gonna be screwing down glass.. tldr make sure clutch not sticky


Honestly if I need power I just use the fucking cheap home depot folding electric battery driver (orange black, black decker i think). i think 30$ in 2015 but it works just fine and saved me like 200$ over the milwakee 4v thing. i am thinking no matter what they say using the tiny pen for high power will always go bad, regardless of the brand or quality, its just too small. the gears can't take it. the cheap plastic one has no point stress issues.. you just can't use a clock for installing #12 bolts lol

[thm_w]

The miniware I guess is the one you are talking about, seems to have motion control only: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806602923382.html

Hard to tell from the review if the ES666 is actually better than the no name junk one I have or not:

[coppercone2]

I got the mini arrowmax engraver too. I want it for rubber abrasive burrs. Not sure how the collet situation will workout but I have at least some I think will work.

This was one of the hardest purchasing decisions I made. I hope it leads to happy lucky good bless time with contacts

Now maybe a pen drill in the future. I have a dremel flexshaft but I noticed when I got to set that thing up its like some crazy shit

dremel flexshaft :



pen tool:  starfleet with chinese characteristics

[coppercone2]

I used the pen grinder for the first time. I noticed there was some arcing on burnt flux residue and or old ass burn marks from 1960 I failed to clean off fully in the assembled 6177A. There was a bit of arcing near the capacitor. This unit had extensive scrubbing with various removers before, so chances are this was a little burned on.

I used the sharp tip soft rubber abrasive burr to get between the solder joints without taking the unit apart, then cleaned up with a flux remover brush and some spraying. It seems to have worked and was convenient. It seems to have no problem. For this job you could probobly use the 2xAAA powered engraving pens, so long you managed to fit point burr.  not disappointed so far. For delicate PCB cleaning you don't need much power, and I am still considering getting a few low powered AAA engraving tools and leaving them loaded with different rubberized abrasives, they use a set screw, but for PCB touchup conveniance and speed is the key. With eneloops I think they will basically be forever tools, for the lightest of detail work, to keep blood pressure low while working on PCB. this lithium ion one is way more powerful then required for PCB detail cleaning, however I think with the silicon carbide burrs you WILL be able to use this unit to mill into PCB somewhat, to take care of heavy damage.


the idea of having a set of 'rotary files' that are good to go but also economical interests me

[coppercone2]

that mini rotary tool with the diamond ball burr did a really good job to remove the copper from strip board if you hold the ball sideways for maximum cutting

getting the right size drill in a collet handle works but it gets pretty obnoxious to do alot. this one can do a fairly narrow trench without the effort and much lighter fixturing and it can also go through errant solder  that makes for a tough uneven cut.

[charliex]

i have one of the es15's its pretty good, a little chunky

https://charliex2.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/miniwave-es15-screwdriver-ker-toolkit-3d-print/

[coppercone2]

I want the drill now. I found collets that can adapt it to any reasonable size hole for the tool.

[Andrew LB]

Every mini electric screwdriver i've owned/used have been garbage. Either the motors are too weak or the bits themselves are of poor quality and get rounded off or cam out, ruining the screw head. I bought a set of Proxxon micro screwdrivers about 10 years ago and use them a ton and not a single one in the set has been worn out from use. Wera and Wiha make some good ones too.

[coppercone2]

oh yeah the bits will be shady, you need to buy wiha bits to pair with it.

[coppercone2]

Well I got the mini pen drill from arrowmax. The collet is good but the whole assembly is a little loose. It stalls out pretty easily with the larger drills (i.e. 2mm) in wood.

I managed to drill through a substantial copper sheet (18awg), a similar thickness aluminum sheet.

With the smaller drill bit it drilled through a 3/4 inch block of natural hard wood but it was slow.


I got a bunch of higher quality HSS drill bits for it (at 3$ each) because I obviously assume if you can get a bundle of drill bits that cost more then the drill, chances are the drills that came with the tool suck (just like the bits that come with the screw drivers suck compared to wiha).

I might also try vanadium carbide steel. There is also tungsten carbide 2.35mm shank drills, but I am suspicious that it will break because the bit is wobbly. Also, there are diamond coated drills... which I can try to use to drill through stainless sheet metal and PCB (i wonder....).

I am hoping that with the right drills, this tool can be used to drill through more substantial materials. With the default set of drills it comes with, I would say that its a really shady purchase (not recommended). If it works with better drills, it might be useful for annoying small work.

The arrowmax grinder tool from a functionality standpoint I can recommend, and the burrs and accessories are decent (it depends on if the tool breaks to truely determine value). The arrowmax drill on the other hand is dodgy... for light work  you might have better results with one of those japanese AA battery drills, because I read the collet shank does not wobble.. if their both that weak, its going to come down to a stable collet to determine utility for drilling really soft stuff.

[coppercone2]

with high quality HSS drills (name brand) a 3/32 drill managed to make a hole in a metal steel junction box cover in not too long a time (but its slow). Like the good ones that are heavy zinc plated and fairly thick and stiff.

if you go through the trouble of getting a set of 3/32 shank drills, the utility of the pen drill increases by alot.. but the main problem is still that its wobbly. i did manage to drill into a 3/16 brass plate with a tiny drill without breaking it, but it annoys me. Don't know if I want to try carbide if it wobbles.

also, probobly don't share bits with a sensitive drill, because its not drilling efficiently lol

[coppercone2]

I also think it might be good to attach a mini nylon brush with a 3/32 shank to the drill to use it as a slow cleaning tool for cleaning up pliers and stuff so it can get a good scrub under a few drops of oil (for things you are paranoid about washing like excelta precision pliers), to reduce q-tip use

this seems to be a pain in the ass, with electric tooth brushes being too big and manual brushes just being plain annoying.

aactually found one that came with something else, with wd40 or 3in1 oil the nylon brush combined with the pen drill actually makes a formidable cleaning tool for grooves and shit, so you can do full cleaning under oil. the dremel is too big, and the flex shaft is too annoying and inconvenient for this, so it does make for a over priced specialized cleaning tool too for fairly narrow grooves, if your just sick of manual brushes

And I noticed as for the wobble, it seems to go away but still spin if you tighten the empty collet. I wonder if this means the collet was ground wrong. Maybe its just not being pressed down far enough when there is something in it. I wonder what would happen with a gentle lapping.

[coppercone2]

did some experiments with a very bootleg adapter made from mis matching parts that kinda fit together so I can add a 1/8 inch drill to it. I put a 0.9mm carbide drill on it (with 1/8 shank), kinda ridiculous because it was offset by maybe 2 inches and I put a random dremel collet into some generic collet holder thing.

PCB holes seem to not be a problem if your steady. Drilling a regular galvinized washer worked too.


Stainless steel you can drill through 90% of the way but the way it pulls on the exit hole breaks the tiny carbide bit.

But I will say even if your a little wobbly, if you get a 2.35 mm shank carbide drill, you can probobly work PCB with this thing OK for small mods.. a little dodgy but I did not feel like I was going to break something. I think it might actually be convenient. I think you can get away with making partial holes in stainless steel too with small carbide bits using the tiny pen drill... just don't let it exit. Also you need a fair bit of force to press it down so its kinda dodgy. better then i expected though. Its worth it if you loathe the flex shaft.

[coppercone2]

with a small burr of carbide the pen will go through PCB but it does not like stainless plate, even for deburring its IMO too weak. It needs more power for hard material, you can only go at stainless with the stones or diamonds. However, it does scribe stainless plate beautifully.

I think their grinding pen will serve fine for things like cutting up copper clad board for prototypes, or making small modifications, possibly even a thermal relief or whatever.