Thread: Woodworking Screws

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Fully agree. Nuts'n'Bolts ​in New Town "excrete" on their competitors on quality and price and service. Staff actually know their products.

Cannot agree more! Not only do the staff know their products, they show a lot of patience dealing with customers who are looking to replace one or two brand and/or item-specific fasteners which are often no longer manufactured!!

I must give Illawarra Fasteners in Unanderra a shout out for exactly the same reasons, my other choice which is about the same distance away is far more expensive so they only get the very occasional desperate buy. Years ago I bought thousands of screws and many drawer slides from Elraco in Adelaide, they give great service as well.

Interesting to hear so many people use square drive screws which I suppose are fairly common given that most decking screws are that.

Has anyone used much pozi? I used quite a bit of pozi as that was my dad's go to and found that they are much nicer to use than philips. I havent done enough square or torx to compare though

Originally Posted by qwertyu

... Has anyone used much pozi? I used quite a bit of pozi as that was my dad's go to and found that they are much nicer to use than philips. ...

I also like Pozi, but frequently divert to Phillips because of availability.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Has anyone used much pozi? I used quite a bit of pozi as that was my dad's go to and found that they are much nicer to use than philips. I havent done enough square or torx to compare though

Earlier this year I was in the UK helping my son build a garden office (4.5m x 2.5m) and was using pozi drive for the flooring and OSB lining. First time I had ever used them and found them very good, I didn't damage a single head... but, I went through a lot of driver bits. I also used torx screws in some areas and found them fantastic, no head damage and no broken driver bits. When I got back home I had to replace some decking and went straight for torx screws, fantastic, not a single problem. I have used square drive on a few projects but found that I damaged some heads which I will readily admit was probably more to do with my technique than the screws, i.e., not fully seating home the bit before pulling the trigger.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Robertson heads aren't easy to find here but are far better than the Phillips head screws that are common.

A while ago I made tool cabinet using quite alot of the Robertson screws. I got them from this place: Screw it Screws

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

I'd highly recommend Robertson heads as the tennis elbow that comes from gripping a drill hard while using crap screws can be quite debilitating.

I can't agree more, I never suffered with tennis elbow until I recently built my tool cabinet, all I can say is it takes along time to heal if at all!. I still have pains now months after, both joints.

Spax was always the go to when I lived in the UK, still have a couple of boxes to use. Over here in Oz though they are quite hard to come by, I have had good service from Scrooz. I do like the square drive stuff but they do have various options. Well worth a look and cheaper than Bunnings.

Originally Posted by yvan

All the screws I use are Phillips head, self-tapping stainless steel in various gauges & lengths that I purchase from our local fasteners shop. Pricewise, a box of 100 screws often ends up cheaper than buying 2 or 3 small packets of a dozen or so of the same zinc-plated screws from Bunnings.

One thing I did notice is that the bit(s) I use to drive the screws in don't seem to fit very snuggly into the head of the screw.

Is there a good quality brand of bits which can be recommended for the job?

Cheers
Yvan

If you're buying the name brand bits like Irwin, Dewalt, Makita, P&N, Milwaukee... they're all good. It's usually a cheap crap screw problem. The smaller the gauge screw the worse they are. I'll be dammed if I can find a decent 6g philips head screw in australia. 8g is usually 50 50, but often the heads are too big for the drawer slides I am cursed with having to install.

Originally Posted by Greg Q

When I used to live in Canada I applied for a US green card. Eventually I abandoned my application. Know why? No square drive screws.

No kidding!! That was my reasoning also!

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

If you're buying the name brand bits like Irwin, Dewalt, Makita, P&N, Milwaukee... they're all good. It's usually a cheap crap screw problem. The smaller the gauge screw the worse they are. I'll be dammed if I can find a decent 6g philips head screw in australia. 8g is usually 50 50, but often the heads are too big for the drawer slides I am cursed with having to install.

I've use the scrooz 6G phillips head with no problems, they are made in china though (iso compliant) but they don't strip out or snap.

I have just ordered the Wera 851/4 Screwdriver bits, hoping for a better fit with the Phillips heads.

Thanks Chris Parks for the suggestion!


Cheers
Yvan

Originally Posted by havabeer69

I've use the scrooz 6G phillips head with no problems, they are made in china though (iso compliant) but they don't strip out or snap.

Do they wobble on the bit at all?