Trend Grabit

As sure as black cats have black kittens, sooner or later you will strip the head of a screw. hopefully you will have a Trend Grabit around. It's got a reverse cutting drill bit to drill out a hole in the screw, and a reverse threaded cone to dig into the hole and unscrew the screw.

One thing to bear in mind. You do have to drill out a hole in the top of the screw, even thought the screw may appear nicely drilled by your previous attempts to screw it in, the hole that the grabit makes is the correct shape for the threaded cone to grab.

There's a series of pictures here http://www.trendmachinery.co.uk/grabit/

Fuller Stepped Drill Bits

Today I had cause to try out my Fuller stepped drill bits. I won't repeat my earlier post, and I have not got a cut through photo to post yet, but they do make life so easy. The drill bits come for different lengths screws, so for any one drill bit, the length of the narrowest part of the drill, ie for the pilot hole, is fixed.

But the length of the shank and the depth of the counter sink can be set so easily. This means that you can set the depth that you want to countersink the screws to exactly, just under the surface, or deep enough to plug.

Drill one hole and then pop in the screw, no trying to drill two concentric holes and a countersink.

They are not what you would call cheap, but given that I have about 1000 bronze screws which all need predrilling, that equates to a whole lot of saved time. Even if I figure that time saved at minimum wage, I think I'm well in the black.

Stepped Drill Bits

To join two bits of wood with a Bronze Screw requires a lot more work than you might think. Bronze screws will not go into oak without the proper pilot hole.

Ideally you want a pilot hole, an shank hole and a countersink hole, which all have to be concentric.

Since the screw is free to turn in the top piece of wood, the screws pull the second piece of wood tight to the first in a way nails just can't.

Not wanting to drill three holes per screw, I searched the 'net and found Fuller. They produce an array of drill bits and other accessories, but of primary interest to me was the stepped drills.

Combine these with a countersink and a drill stop and you can in theory drink your three holes in one fell swoop.

As none of their distributors had the particular drills in stock that I needed, they kindly shipped the drills directly to me. The drills arrived promptly, in little envelopes, with each one coated in a plastic that peels off easily to protect them from damage in the post.

It will be a while before I get to the stage of screwing things together. I have to cut the frames first, but rest assured that I will post the results here. I may even go overboard and cut a hole in half to show a photo of a hole with a screw inserted.