Understanding Different Types of Screws

If your current approach to getting screws for your projects is to walk into a home center, reach into a bin of drywall screws and grab a handful and throw them in a bag and leave, you're missing the boat on fasteners. You really wanna treat fasteners like you treat other tools in your shop. Which is, the right tool for the right job. So let's have a look at a little bit of a primer here. There's so much stuff out there today that really provides specialized screws. And what that means is they're gonna do the right thing for you every time you go to use them. So let's have a look at just kinda some general screws here, that I've been using this style of screw since forever. Way back in the day, I was running a production cabinet shop and we used boatloads of these kinda screws for putting our cabinets together. Pretty cool things going on here. So first off, any screw, screws in general. What we've got here is what's called a flat head screw. It's a little counterintuitive, 'cause it's actually kind of a funnel shape, but this is called a flat head. Now look closely at the bottom of the head right there. There's a little nib. So think about what's happening here. When this head hits the surface of the material, we want it to be able to embed itself, we want it to be able to dig in. Then that nib is gonna help with its ability to do that. Now the other thing that makes this a good assembly screw, as opposed to a drywall screw, is we've got threads. Then we've got an open area of the shank, and that's really important. A lot of people have asked me the question, well when I screw parts together, they don't quite close. They don't draw together. And a lotta times it's because they are using a drywall screw, which are often fully threaded. To assemble stuff like cabinets, we wanna have thread, then an open shank, then our flat head, nibs. So that that open area is gonna let the parts really draw together. Down here at the tip, there's a thread cutting tip. And that's gonna help the screw penetrate the material much more easily. The threads are nice and deep, and that's gonna help them get a good bite. So again, I know I'm picking on drywall screws, but sometimes you gotta do that. Cause I know woodworkers are out there grabbing those for lots of projects, and really they're not the best tool for the job. Screws like this are gonna serve you much better. Now let's have a look at, you built your cabinet, you're ready to hang your cabinet, and one of the things you'd like to do is make sure it's gonna stay on the wall, right? So screws like this, cabinet installation screws, are great for that. Now in this case, not a flat head. Look at the large built-in washer that's included with this head. Think about what's happening, Holy buckets, when you hang a cabinet on the wall, you got the weight of the cabinet, then you're gonna put Grandma's china in there, then you're going to put some glassware in there. How much does that thing weigh when it's done? We really wanna make sure that we've got a lot of surface area on the head of that screw so that when it bears against the cleat that you're going through to hang this cabinet, that it's gonna be able to take that load. Once again, we've got a clear area on the shank. That's gonna help it draw nice and tight to your wall. And once again, we've got down here, a thread cutting tip. Now these screws are crazy cool. And I've been asked about this kinda stuff quite frequently. These are melamine screws, they're also great for hardwoods. Handful of things going on here. Let's start at the bottom of the screw. We've got our thread cutting tip. So once again, it's clearing the way for the screw. Nice deep threads. Now with this screw, it's designed to be able to bury itself into the material that you're driving it into. So this is cool. There's a little reverse thread right here. And what that's actually doing is it's creating a recess for that neck to fit into, so that the head of our screw eventually can end up recessed, flush. Now, if you've ever worked with melamine, you probably know it's pretty easy to chip melamine, driving screws into it can be a little bit funky because it can have a tendency to, we used to call it camel humping. When the screw would kinda expand out the material and make a high spot. So specialized screws like this really help avoid that kind of thing. Just in general, a great thing to have in the shop is just a little kit of general purpose screws. We've got a lot of stuff going on here. Some flat head screws with our nibs there. Great for general product assembly. When we've got a screw that looks like this, now we're in a pan head screw. You're fastening a piece of sheet metal to your work, or a piece of polycarbonate. This is a great screw to use for that because of its pan head. Last thing I want to do here, proof is in the pudding, is grab one of these melamine screws for you and drive it into a piece of melamine so you can really see what I'm talking about. This is standard home center stuff, home center melamine. How many cabinets a year are built out of this stuff? Notice there's no pre-drill. Augers itself right in, flushes up with the melamine. So again, you know in your shop, you're careful all the time to make sure you're using the right tool for the job. It's also important to make sure you're using the right fastener for the job, focusing your attention on what's gonna do the best work and result in your project being the best it can be. So have a look at specialized screws. Really makes a huge difference in making things go better and come out better.