Screws and Drills

Before starting to screw you must measure, accurately where the screws will go. One third from the edge. Draw a cross where to determine where the point is from the edge, for me I was measuring 13mm and 26mm from the bottom and the edge of the 40mm wide piece of timber. 

Some important things to remember:

2 screws in each place, diagonally across, to support the fixing in two directions.

Screws must be the correct length. In this case it was 26mm because the wood was 15mm thick and I wanted it to penetrate both pieces of wood.

Place some wood adhesive PVA glue to the joints before screwing for extra security.

Screws must finish in alignment with the grain.

Measure accurately and drill directly downwards.

Don’t have the drill in reverse. I did this and it chewed up the timber and was impossible to go through. Even though I did 8 holes before having it pointed out by the workshop staff.

Clamp and apply pressure to the timber with one hand, the other hand on the drill.

Apparently it is best to sand the drilled guide holes before placing the screw in, this is for neatness.

There is a drill head for a screw but apparently makes it ‘easy to mangle’ so for me, I didn’t use this but was shown. Next time. Hopefully not in reverse.