Sawdust on the Floor

I can’t tell you how many times I have lamented to my wife something along the lines of ” Man, I wish I had the patent on that…………, I would be a millionaire by now”. Some of the items that could fill in the blank, would be the “wire tie or zip tie as some call it, or the sheet rock screw.  It seems that every week someone comes up with a different and unique use for these products. And yes I as guilty as everyone else, I often use both products for things never intended by the inventor. 

I have used sheet rock screws for everything from hanging sheet rock, to securing plywood to the subfloor of our kitchen upgrade, to securing sides of the cabinets in our kitchen and bathroom vanity together.  And for the most part, I have been happy with the results. While the sheet rock screws really work great in securing sheet rock to wood studs, they are not the ideal fastener when used on other projects. I can’t tell you how many times I have driven a sheet rock screw into something a little harder than a conventional framing stud, only to have the screw head shear off.  If I was lucky the head broke off either below the surface of the wood, or high enough that I could extract the broken screw without destroying the surface of the wood.  Believe me, I wasn’t always lucky.

I think that a lot of us automatically turn to the ever present sheet rock screw is the pure fact that they are readily available and are not expensive.  Take a trip to your favorite DIY super store, and you will find at least a quarter of an aisle dedicated to sheet rock screws. That in itself speaks to the popularity of the sheet rock screw. Again, ” Man, I wish I had the patent on that……….”  But all kidding aside, depending on your application, there are better options for fasteners then the sheet rock screw.

The common sheet rock screw is designed to fail at a torque rating of 25-30 in/lbs, or 2-3 Ft/lbs of torque. When you apply a torque greater than these values the screw head will normally shear off.  Considering the amounts of torque that the newer impact drivers and screw guns can develop that really isn’t a lot of torque. If you’re not familiar with the terminology, torque is simply a measurement of how much twist you can apply to a fastener before it fails. The greater the torque rating, the more twist you can apply.  

A better option might be to switch to the use of what is known as production or Extra Torque(XT) screws .   These screws have a torque rating of 40-55 in/lbs or 3.5-5 Ft/lbs of torque, almost twice that of the sheet rock screw. Another advantage of the XT screw is that the traditional Phillips head on the sheet rock screw has been replaced with a square head, that means less cam out, the official term for stripping the head of the screw. This is the same type head used on several varieties of deck fasteners and the Kreg Pocket screws.

If you are working with hardwoods, it has always been recommended that you predrill and use a screw lubrication before you drive the screws into the wood. Now there is another option.  While it is still recommended that you predrill the screw holes, The change is that instead of lubricating the screw, you can elect to use what is known as a Unplated dry Lube screw. These screws are coated with a dry lubrication during the manufacturing process.  This coating reduces the amount of torque required to set the screws, which again equates to less broken or cammed out screws. This dry lubrication also offers some protection from corrosion. The manufacturer recommends that these screws are for internal use only.

There is one more option that I intend to use, on our on going bathroom upgrade. That is if and when we ever get a weekend without rain or snow.  Part of this upgrade will be to install new trim around the existing bathroom window.  I intend to replace the entire window trim package, that will includes the trim, sill, and the jam extenders.  In the past, getting the joint between the vertical trim pieces and the window sill tight has always been a real challenge.   In the past I have used shims under the sill to force it up and into the vertical trim pieces.  Sometimes this works, other times not.  I have also tried to shoot finish nails from under the sill into the vertical trim, but these nails just don’t have the holding capabilities needed. My new choice will be to use Trim Head screws.  These specially designed screws have a thin shank, and a square head.  When driven into your material the small head will sink below the surface of the wood, much like a properly set finish nail.  Ideal for installing trim, cabinet backs and according to the manufacturer even into stair treads. The other advantage is that if the fit isn’t just perfect, you can back the screw out and adjust the fit of your project, something that you can’t do with a finish nail without damaging the surface of the wood.

So while I would still would love to have the patent rights to the sheet rock screws (if anyone is offering), I now understand that they are not a miracle product that will work in every application.   I am not going to throw away or discard my collection of sheet rock screws, but instead will supplement them with a good selection of the XT and trim head screws.  And yes, I would like to add these screws to that list of products that I wish I had the patent rights to.  Yeah I know, dream on.

For more information on or to purchase any of the products discussed in this post, please click on the highlighted links and images in the post.

Hey, I wanted to give you an update on the bathroom vanity and mirror project, that I have been working on.  Well, all I can say is that it’s in process.  I have completed the mirror and have the first and second coats of the “greenish” stain applied.  I got that done over this past week end. And now I’m in a holding pattern, you see the next step is get a coat of polyurethane on the mirror.  But in order for that to happen “Mother Nature” has to be kind to me.  Something she hasn’t been for several weeks. The southern parts of New Jersey, where we happen to live,  has been inundated with either massive amounts of either snow or rain, each and every week end for the past couple of months.

The huge amounts of snow have kept me from getting into the shop to work, and the rain brought with it high levels of humidity. High levels of humidity and finish coats of polyurethane are not compatible with each other.  The ideal humidity for the application of most brands of polyurethane  is around 70%.  When the humidity levels are much higher than that the drying time for the polyurethane increases dramatically.  At times the polyurethane may never truly dry.

That happened back to when we were building our kitchen cabinets.  If you were not following our post back then, these kitchen cabinets took me over a year to complete and install. So it was only logical that some of the finish work was done during the summer months.  At one point I had a set of cabinets done, and the stain coats applied, all that remained was to apply the polyurethane top coat. Maybe because I was tired, or maybe I was just tired of these cabinets, but even though I knew better, I went ahead and applied the polyurethane.  The only problem was that the relative humidity that weekend was near 95%.

I applied that poly the same way as I had every other cabinet for this  project, nothing different.  The following weekend I returned to the shop, to do a fine sanding and then apply a second coat of poly, only to find a very ugly surprise. The Poly wasn’t dry.  Well it appeared to be dry to the touch, but when I went to sand it, it just rolled off the surface of the cabinets in tiny balls.  What a mess.   My only recourse was to totally sand the entire cabinet back to bare wood and start the entire finish over again.  So with that memory, and humidity levels over 70% RH for the remainder of that week and most of the week end, the application of poly had to wait. 

Since the incident with the kitchen cabinet, I have added an air conditioner and a dehumidifier to my shop, so I can work through these types of problems.  But since it is still winter here in New Jersey, using either the dehumidifier or the AC are not options. So that portion of this project is in a holding pattern. I know spring is just around the corner, hope it gets here soon so I can get back to work on the vanity and mirror.

Speaking of the mirror, I did make one more change to the design.  In the last post I talked about adding a bead detail to the inside edge of the mirror.  This bead was added to add to the visual appeal of the mirror.  After sanding the entire mirror, I took one more unbiased look at the mirror. And it still looked too plain. So I decided to add a top and bottom trim piece to the outside of the mirror.

I used the same beading bit that I had used on the trim above, and for the doors on the vanity to put a bead along one edge of a piece of 3/4″ stock.  After I had the bead detail on the wood, I milled it down to just over 5/16″ thick.  I was concerned that if I had milled the stock down first to the 5/16″ thickness, and then attempted to apply the bead detail, that the wood would split as I ran it past the beading bit. Yeah I know that I wasted a little wood, but I rather do that, then take a chance on having a piece of wood shatter or break up as I moved it past a spinning router/shaper bit.

The top and bottom trim was then cut to a width of 1 1/8″ wide.  This just happens to be the amount the top of the bead detail on the inside edge of the mirror will stand out from the wall.  To make the trim look more complete, I mitered the ends of the trim, and glued small returns at the end of the trim.  A small detail, but I think it adds to the visual aspect of the mirror.

So if you know of any good chants or prayers that will convince Mother Nature to give me a break, and stop all of this snow and rain, I love to hear about them.  Otherwise, I’m on a hold.