Shit.  I'm doing some woodworking, and I'm using wood screws & glue to attatch
the plywood top of a box to the wood sides.  Two of the screws have broken
off in the wood, and I need to do something about it within the next 1/2 hour,
before the glue sets.  If anyone happens to see this within the next 1/2 hour,
PLEASE respond....

16 responses total.

Orinoco has already called me on the voice-line for advice...

Wow.  Scott's even faster than I am :)
Yeah, apparently the wood glue is what does most of the holding anyway, so
I just need to fill up the empty screw holes.  

So, thank you again, scott.

I hope you clamped the parts too. Having a very thin glue layer, with the
wood in as close contact as possible, is what is most important. The
screws accomplish this without clamps. 

Also, sounds like you drove the screws a bit too hard. It is very hard to
break off a wood screw - usually either the screw strips the threads
it made in the wood, or the screw slots are creamed first. 

It is not difficult to break off a drywall or deck screw when screwing
into wood.  You have to watch the torque setting when driving those
babies!

Brass wood screws also lose their heads rather easily.

Drywall and deck screws are not made for permanent and strong fastening
of wood furniture that will be subject to fluctuating stresses. Wood
screws per-se have strong shanks for a reason.

I was actually just using a hand-held screwdriver, not a power tool.  I'm not
entirely sure how I managed to break them, but I did.

Yes, I used a clamp of sorts - a plywood board placed on top of it, with heavy
weights on the plywood.

Cabinet screws are made for furniture and look like drywall screws but have
a stronger, smaller head.

The aggressive thread on this type of screw is what allows you to break
them off.

Drilling too small of a pilot hole also helps. 

Pilot hole?

If you pre-drill a hole, and then screw a screw into that existing hole, it's
called a pilot hole.

It helps to ease the insertion of the scree, place the screw accurately,
and prevent splitting of what you are screwing the screw into. You can
get a set of pilot hole drills, by the way, which drills a hole that has
a small diameter for the threaded part of the screw, a larger diameter
for the shank of the screw, and the cone-shaped part for recessing flat headed
wood screws. These are very handy for doing nice work. The set comes in
all the common screw sizes (6, 8, 10, 12) and a number of different
lengths.

Put soap on it, regular bar soap on the screw, and you'll find that the screw
will go in much easier, if you are having difficulty getting a screw into wood
remove it and scrape it on some bar soap and try it again.  It'll remove the
friction as it's entering.

Yes, I know what a pilot hole is.  It's just that for the last couple
of thousand screws I've planted, I haven't bothered with them.  ;-)

Do that in hard enough wood & you sure invite splitting.

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