The Tiger Driver 6V Cordless Screwdriver: A Product Review

If you're looking for a cordless screwdriver for the purpose of convenience more than power, the Tiger Driver does its job adequately at a price point that's about as low as it goes.

The 6V Tiger Driver is good for quickly inserting/removing a lot of screws in holes that are already drilled and/or threaded. It has enough power to get a tapped screw partway into light wood, but as soon as it hits a knotty patch or any other sort of resistance, it tends to grind to a complete halt. And you can completely forget about getting through metal that hasn't been drilled first.

The unit is very light and thus is convenient as a portable, though it has a "pistol grip" design that might not mesh with your belt or toolkit as well as a straight driver would. In a bit of marketing hilarity, the manual advertises the unit's power-off state as "manual mode." I have to admit it did help in putting together a wood futon frame, when this thing was all I had, and the design allowed for much better torque than my standard hand drivers were capable of giving. Of course, I was only hand-screwing in the first place because this thing is too weak to get through anything but the lightest of resistance.

I got mine for $6, and I'm fine with the price for a light-duty convenience driver. If you can get it for $5 to $7 and mostly just need it for convenience jobs to save some wear and tear on your hands, I'd say it's worth it. I haven't seen anything else cheaper. Just don't expect any miraculous Herculean feats out of it. The addition of four AA batteries does up the overall cost a bit, but short of the more pricey rechargeables, that's a pretty standard amount and I don't dock it any points for that requirement. The unit also comes with only two Phillips and flat-head driver heads, but will take your standard magnetic types - Ace sells a pretty good 80-piece set of the kind that will fit with the Tiger for about $15 or so.