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Well I did a little experimenting over the weekend with normal wood screws and long threaded wood screws. I figured that, using the torque setting on the cordless drill one could determine the maximum torque achieved with each type of screw before loosing thread. The electronic clutch setting on the Festool ranged from 0 to 25.

I used a couple of washers with the screw to distribute the load.

If screwing directly into MDF endgrain, the long thread screws could be tightened more than normal wood screws, 19 compared to 17.

If screwing into a 16 mm Tassie Oak dowel the torque achieved was off the scale, that is greater than 25.

Where torque was greater than 25, normal wood screws were preferred because their heads did not break off, in the same application.

If the dowel cracked and consequently the MDF split then one was still achieved 25 or more torque.

If a dowel was screwed into off center, one could still achieve a torque setting greater than 25, useful to know should you break a screw (realising that it may not be necessary to go over a maximum torque setting in the first place)
Zelk