Wood screws breaking

Submitted by drat1047 on Sun, 11/30/2014 - 11:44

I'm making a wall mount simple wine rack with butt joint shelves. I'm using oak, an 18v Dewalt drill and #8 2" all purpose wood screws. I pre-drilled holes using a #8 countersink bit.  The screws break at the point they are almost in. What am I doing wrong? What should the drill tork be set on?  I have it on the screw driver setting. Should my pre-drilled holes be deeper for hard oak?

Greg Hill

Wed, 12/03/2014 - 10:19

I'm a little new at this but maybe my suggestions will help.

You can buy a screw predirll bit at home dopot or lowes, and other places I'm sure, that is tapered the same as the screw you are using and it has a counter sink bit attached that is setable to the depth of the screw. Therefore you can dirll the hole to the depth of the screw and counter sink.

 

Something I have done to make sinking screws easier when building decks is to coat the screw with soap. This provices lubrication. However; this might cause a problem when applying the finishing.

cmcmassage

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 07:11

Spaxx screws are the best ones out there. My brother in Tampa, FL had no problem finding them at Home Depot but I only found one HD in my area of Houston, TX that has them. You can also order them on Amazon if your area doesn't have them. They're apparently self-drilling but I almost never use this feature, especially on something that I'm going to be finishing/staining. What I've been doing with my pilot holes is taking a longer and smaller bit than the screw I'm using and drill it as far as it needs to accommodate the screw and then I'll use a countersink with a tapering bit to open up just the area around the head of the screw. This has provided a super secure connection and also keeps my wood from splitting and the screw from dancing around where I don't want it to go.

jhancock42

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 10:07

I've used them without pre drilling, even in poplar(very prone to split) and close to the edge, with no splits. They are quite remarkable.