60
votes
Accepted
How to avoid stripping screw heads?
What am I doing wrong?
If you're stripping the heads, Phillips head screws probably aren't the right kind for the job. They cam out under excessive torque [1]. And once they do, the bit becomes a ...
- 5,816
49
votes
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How to keep screws in a hollow door
I would not mount the latch to the door skin. Even if you can attach it well, chances are you'll pull the skin off the door over time. It's not designed to withstand that sort of stress.
Instead, use ...
- 104k
45
votes
How to avoid stripping screw heads?
You may be having one or more of the problems as follows:
You are using the wrong size driver bit for the screw type. Make sure the bit fits perfectly in the slot of the screw.
You may be trying to ...
- 61.2k
43
votes
How to fit a screw into a drilled big hole on wall?
For this you can use wall drilling anchors as shown in the images below. They are also known as wall plugs or rawl plugs. You can get them from any hardware shop.
- 531
42
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What is a NON-self-tapping screw? What does self-tapping mean, really?
To "tap" in this context means to cut threads into a hole. For this topic, we can think of three basic things a screw can do - drill its own hole, tap its own threads, or just force its way into the ...
- 26.6k
40
votes
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How to remove very stuck stripped screws?
Locking pliers, which is the generic term for a class of product often called by the name of one registered trademark (Vise Grips® - no particular endorsement implied, but some of the cheaper knock-...
- 133k
37
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What is a NON-self-tapping screw? What does self-tapping mean, really?
Partly you're being confused between "wood screw", and "machine screw" aka bolt. Wood screws self-thread by nature. Bolts are not meant to self-thread at all (unless they are).
When you fit a screw, ...
33
votes
How to keep screws in a hollow door
In the Netherlands (and other parts of Europe) we use a 'patentbout' for this situation.
The holes are through the entire door and line up with the shields.
- 431
32
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Technique for driving hinge screws to minimize misalignment
As you are a perfectionist for installing hinge screws perfectly it turns out that there is a product made just for this purpose. It is a self centering pilot drill that aims the pilot drill bit right ...
- 61.2k
32
votes
What screwdriver I should use for this screw head?
It appears that the hex sides of that screw head have been rounded off due to the use of an ill-fitting hex wrench. A metric and an SAE hex wrench will both fit in there, but the use of the wrong one, ...
- 29.3k
31
votes
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Wood glue versus epoxy for doweling stripped screw holes
Wood glue, hands down. Wood glue is designed to penetrate the wood for a tighter bond. Properly done, wood glue is stronger than the surrounding wood. I have chairs I've wood glued and clamped and ...
- 19.7k
28
votes
How to avoid stripping screw heads?
What am I doing wrong?
Using a drill to drive screws. I used to have the same problem as you, until I switched to using an Impact driver instead.
Drills are designed for drilling holes. They deliver ...
- 1,870
28
votes
Will removing shelving screws from studs damage the studs?
As long as they are normal screws and you unscrew them they won't compromise the studs or their integrity. If you rip the screws out (with a hammer for example) that could compromise the studs.
If ...
- 786
28
votes
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What do the numbers in screw sizes M3, M4 etc. mean?
There are a few more numbers for a complete description. It's pretty much a world-wide system described by several ISO standards, but there are occasional oddities (slight differences between ISO and ...
- 133k
27
votes
What screwdriver I should use for this screw head?
I mostly agree with FreeMan, but I think this was originally a Torx (six-pointed star) drive. The corners look deeper than I'd expect from an Allen drive.
I would get a set of Torx bits and look for ...
- 104k
25
votes
Choosing the right machine screw for a threaded hole in a computer monitor mount
You already discovered the answer for your monitor. I'll leave a general answer for others with a similar question.
The Video Electronics Standards Association has a set of standards for mounting ...
- 5,816
25
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How to avoid stripping screw heads?
It could be that the driver you are using is not a Phillips but a Pozidriv or the screws are Pozidriv and the driver is a Phillips.
See https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2015/09/16/what-is-the-...
- 19.6k
24
votes
How to fit a screw into a drilled big hole on wall?
If there is no wood at all behind this spot anywhere, a plain wall anchor may rip out over time - curtain rails hold curtains which can be heavy, and can flap around in the wind creating vibration ...
- 6,896
24
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What is a NON-self-tapping screw? What does self-tapping mean, really?
Pretty much any machine screw --
- 1,146
24
votes
What do the numbers in screw sizes M3, M4 etc. mean?
Mn for a number n means that the diameter of the screw, projected onto the transverse plane, is n milimeters - including the threading.
The "M" stands for "Metric" (as opposed to ...
- 2,365
23
votes
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Finding the right size of nut for a bolt
Judging by the pitch and diameter you've measured, what you probably have is an American UNC 6-32 screw.
There are many conversion charts on the interwebs, but if you refer to this one in particular ...
- 5,057
23
votes
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What's the term for a hole with a screw thread?
That is simply called a threaded insert. It is either first placed into the mold, then plastic injected, or pressed in after the plastic handle is injected. Google images for "threaded inserts ...
- 246
23
votes
Screw with two grooves?
Those are called breakaway machine screws or just breakaway screws.
They come in handy when installing cabinet hardware (handles/knobs etc.) in materials that differ in thickness or you don't know ...
- 4,397
22
votes
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What is this screw called?
M5 Pan head machine screw.
Edit: M5 screws have a 5mm shaft.
Edit2.1 (my apologies): This is an M5-0.80 screw. 0.8 refers to the thread pitch, which (for metric screws) is measured by dividing 9....
- 6,064
22
votes
How do I remove these Ikea screws? (studs inside holes)
I would apply a high-strength thread-locking adhesive (e.g. loctite 270) to the inside of the head, reattach the head to the threaded rod (AKA stud), wait many hours, remove bolt.
LOCTITE 270 is a ...
- 23.7k
22
votes
Accepted
How can I fasten a low-voltage plate to drywall?
Low voltage plates without brackets make for a sad DIYer
It appears the last installer tried simply screwing the cover plate to the drywall directly without a bracket or box to back it up. ...
- 72k
22
votes
How to fit a screw into a drilled big hole on wall?
As strange as this might sound, provided there's a stud back there, you can use toothpicks to fill in the hole. The toothpicks can bite into the screw, and provide friction against the surrounding ...
- 19.7k
22
votes
Will removing shelving screws from studs damage the studs?
I think your husband just wants the shoe bins to remain where they are and doesn't want to buy new ones.. LOL. Removing the screws will not damage the studs even if they were load bearing. Patch the ...
- 53.3k
21
votes
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How to remove screws from old decking
When the boards having the heads are being discarded, a simple way to remove them is to cut through the screws at the joint between the board.
You can use a reciprocating saw (often called by a ...
- 33.1k
21
votes
How to remove very stuck stripped screws?
Vice grips. If anything is sticking out always go vice grips route.
https://www.amazon.com/VISE-GRIP-Original-Locking-Pliers-68/dp/B00004SBCG/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=vice+grips&qid=...
- 7,966
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible