Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 1:25 PM #1

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Installing furniutre tops

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I use a combination of pocket holes, table top clips or simply through bored holes in the framing. In none of these cases is a typical screw with a tapered head for counter sinking ideal.

I blundered into these screws in the McFeeley site. They are #10, square drive and available in ideal lengths- 5/8", 3/4", 1 1/4" ETC. It is hard to find the 100 package size on the McFeeley site though. Screw lengths and packages sizes, up to 6000, are all mixed up on the web pages. Persistence will find the 100 package size. The head is not tall so the screw can be easily buried with a shallow counter bored hole.

I drive them with this arrangement:

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 2:01 PM #2

Barry Irby
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Re: Installing furniutre tops

Barry Irby

They look very similar to Kreg screws. Washer head screws. Check at Lowe's, I know they have Kreg products, not sure about Home Depot. The washer head design works well in this application and does not have the "cone" a standard countersunk type screw would have and therefore does not tend to split the wood and drive through. Kreg's shorter screws have a different head that works well but I don't like the shape of it as well. Lowes has them in smaller packs, maybe 50.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 2:53 PM #3

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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screw size?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

What size are the Kreg's? #8, 10? I like a size 10 for top installation.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 3:12 PM #4

Barry Irby
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Re: screw size?

Barry Irby

Took a few minutes to find it, but they are No 8. Don't know if they have any in No 10, but the do make a larger version of the jig.

The screws come in two different versions, one for hardwood and the other for soft wood. The hardwood version has finer threads. The screws are self drilling. The hold very well and have very sharp threads. I drive them with an impact driver and have never broken one. And they don't strip easily. I have used thousands of them. Never a problem.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 5:04 PM #5

Hank Knight
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Re: Installing furniutre tops

Hank Knight

Those washer head screws are also good for attaching false drawer fronts to drawer boxes.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 6:42 PM #6

Kneale Brownson
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Re: screw size? *LINK*

Kneale Brownson

Kreg has six through eight in 3/4-21/2 lengths

Kreg screws

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/16/18, 10:17 PM #7

AZ
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McFeely's screws are hardened

AZ in Colorado Springs

You will NOT cut them with wire cutting pliers (even lineman's pliers with longer handles). They're very strong.

That's a significant difference from hardware store screws.

Re: Installing furniutre tops

10/17/18, 11:07 AM #8

Barry Irby
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Re: McFeely's screws are hardened

Barry Irby

I don't know if Kreg screws are hardened, but I do know I hit one with a saw blade by accident and trashed the blade. I will look into the MCFeely ones.

Installing furniutre tops

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