Thread: Chasing a supplier of 5g wood screws.

Originally Posted by Camelot

Yes that's exactly what I mean, otherwise you might as well use Philips

I believe it is called "dressing the screws" or at least that was how my late FIL described it.

Originally Posted by Chesand

I believe it is called "dressing the screws" or at least that was how my late FIL described it.

In the late 80's, I was hanging large doors (2.3M high) in an office building on Threadneedle Street, London, with 4 x 4" brass butts per door and there was hundreds of them to do. The frames and doors were American White Oak and with the screws being brass they could easily snap while trying to align the slots vertically, so in the nail pouch you would carry a block of wax and a bar of soap and I would put a steel screw of the same gauge and thread type in the hole first, these were stronger than brass and while it was an extra operation, it was a lot better than dealing with a broken brass screw, which would have to be drilled out.

Originally Posted by Chesand

I believe it is called "dressing the screws" or at least that was how my late FIL described it.

I've always seen it referred to as "clocking the screws".

Hi Bob
i have these 6g screw if they will work (hope photo uploads ok)

Originally Posted by Camelot

In the late 80's, I was hanging large doors (2.3M high) in an office building on Threadneedle Street, London, with 4 x 4" brass butts per door and there was hundreds of them to do. The frames and doors were American White Oak and with the screws being brass they could easily snap while trying to align the slots vertically, so in the nail pouch you would carry a block of wax and a bar of soap and I would put a steel screw of the same gauge and thread type in the hole first, these were stronger than brass and while it was an extra operation, it was a lot better than dealing with a broken brass screw, which would have to be drilled out.

In the 1960's my uncle used to wipe nails and screws across his Brylcreemed bouffant Elvis style hairdo. I've there's no need to Brylcreem, just natural hair oils or a bit of sweat worked almost as well.

I worked on a site once where the carpenter carried a block of hard soap that he used on recalcitrant floor boards.

Thanks again to all the kind offers - I've taken up Auscabs offer. Thanks

FWIW here is a photo of the carcase of the kitchenette (sans doors and drawers which are still to be painted) that the screws will be used on.
dresser1.jpg
It belonged to my inlaws and they bought it in the late 1940s when they first married. It's very poorly made and really is a POS but SWMBO wants it put into use in her craft room.

In the 60's the kitchenette was moved to their beach house, which we also rented for a year in the late 70's. At that time the kitchenette was still painted the original pale green so we repainted it a pink mushroom colour

In the early 80's the beach house was moved to the back of the beach block and the inlaws built a large retirement house at the front of the block. When MIL passed a couple of years back SWMBO rescued the kitchenette and it's sat on our back veranda since then and I have slowly been "fixing it up".

I started by removing the doors and drawers and salvaging all the hinges and catches. The original badly weathered and damaged ply back was removed and half a dozen joints needed attention and re-gluing. I then replaced the back with cheap pine panel boards. I bought the boards and cut them to size about 18 months ago and they have sat under a tarp on the patio since then. Perhaps not surprisingly they are a tad warped so nailing them on this morning was fun but it's just the back so I dont believe we'll see them once SWMBO has filled it full of her cr@p err. . . .craft stuff.

SWMBO now intends to stencil the doors etc which will be easier to do with the doors off so there's no hurry for me to get the doors on.

Originally Posted by BobL

dresser1.jpg

That's just the sort of stuff that I like to find at tip shops, op shops, auctions, etc, minus your stripping and restoration work, of course.

What are those shelves - 1500 x 400 x 18 Tas oak, or baltic pine, or jarrah (Bob's in WA)?

Probably too late now!

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

That's just the sort of stuff that I like to find at tip shops, op shops, auctions, etc, minus your stripping and restoration work, of course.

What are those shelves - 1500 x 400 x 18 Tas oak, or baltic pine, or jarrah (Bob's in WA)?

Probably too late now!

The frame is a mish-mash of timbers, some jarrah, some pine, and something I cant tell what it is, - maybe tas oak.
I drew the line at stripping it back to bare timber, the timber was cracked in places and teh thought of digging the green paint out of these cracks was too much.

You have disguised it well, Bob.

I thought the shelves might have contained some nice timber. In my experience, face frame battens are rarely worth salvaging!

But you are repurposing it in its entirety.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

You have disguised it well, Bob.

I thought the shelves might have contained some nice timber. In my experience, face frame battens are rarely worth salvaging!

Shelves are just ply, one of the smaller door compartment is lined with thin galvanised steel - supposedly the bread bin, or maybe some sort of cool box?

But you are repurposing it in its entirety.

Correct. The only thing original that's not going back are and teh screws, oh yeah and the cup hooks - well not that I know about anyway

Well the 5G screws arrived from Auscab (thanks) but they are too big DANG !!
I wasn't careful enough in checking the screws fit in ALL the old hinge holes.

What happened was I grabbed a screw from the rusty pile of the old screws extracted from the hinges (over 2 years ago) and assumed the screws would all be the same but NOPE.
The old screws consist of 3 different lengths (3/4, 9/16 and 1/2") and 3 different gauges (5, 4 and something else), the most common size being 4G 1/2" but even these look wrong.

This hinge has been installed with the old 4G screws that have just been run over a wire wheel.
The screws are too large for the hinge holes so the heads sit too far above the hinge plus their heads are munted so I won't use them.
Hinge.jpg

A couple of the hinges have had the hinge holes drilled out to fit 5G screw shanks and the only ones that really fit the hinge (even then not so well) are the unknowns.
Holes sizes in the timber frame are all over the place being drilled to suit each screw or in some cases fitted with a smaller screw and packed with paint and other stuff.
Several of the hinges had also been mounted crooked as the old timber holes are not aligned so that will need fixing.

I wonder if it was originally just made that way or over the years the doors have come off and been screwed back on with whatever was around at the time

Anyway, I've decided to just use round head nickel plated 4Gs and have already order some on ebay. Then I dont have to worry about how flush the countersinks sit.

Meanwhile SWMBO is slowing adding the stencils and this is what it looks like so far.
She's so eager to use it to store (a tiny part of) her fabrics stash she's already started fill the dresser with some of it.

I put one door on with the old screws but its not staying like that.
STencils.jpg

The 4G round head slotted screws finally arrived and the kitchenette is now complete but not without significant cussing etc.

About half the existing holes were way too bit for the 4Gs and most of the rest were "loosish" so let's say a lot of tooth picks were used in putting the doors back.
Also some heads were damaged attempting to "dres the screws" lucky I bought a few spares and FWIW not all screws were dressed.
Still I reckoned the result is better that the 5G CS screws shown above.
Hinge2.jpg

So here's what the sucker looks like after all that.
SWMBO has already loaded it up with some of her craft stuff.
Complete.jpg

I think it looks fine. Did you reach out to Goods and Chattels in Brisbane? As someone else suggested, that is where I'd look first.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

I think it looks fine. Did you reach out to Goods and Chattels in Brisbane? As someone else suggested, that is where I'd look first.

Thanks - I found the screws on line.
Have also been informed by SWMBO that I put the 2 of the doors in the wrong openings.

The middle and right most doors have to be interchanged due to a stencilling pattern issue.
There's a rabbit on the LHS door and there's supposed to be a rabbit on the RHS door and the fox is supposed to be in the middle.

SWMBO said there's no rush.