What screws for hanging kitchen cabinets
Chicagobob
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hello everyone,
I will be hanging kitchen wall cabinets on my structural panels. The panel has 5/8″ OSB underneath 1/2″ drywall. I believe my choices are #10 cabinet screws or #10 wood screws with finish washers. The cabinet screws have coarse threads with larger bite than the wood screws which are finer and not as deep. Do I go for fewer threads with a larger bite, or more threads, not as deep.
Since I will not be screwing into studs, I was planning on using a screw every nine inches or so. Does that sound about right?
Bob
Replies
Sounds like a good plan, use the cabinet screws.
Whatever you do don't tell us what type of screws -cabinet, stainless, drywall etc.- you do decide to use or all hellwill break out and the smoke won't clear for the rest of the week.
About a month ago this topic was covered here in great depth with many opinions parlayed to and fro.
Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Edited 9/11/2002 12:51:24 AM ET by rez
Yeah, what Rez said. Use what YOU like and fuggetaboudit.
Ken Hill
Well, anything but drywall screws: they break too easily..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
ok Phil- you instigator:)Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
I suggest you use sheetrock screws. They are very brittle and have a habit of failing at inconvenient moments. If this suggestion doesn't suit, then I've found that a simple woodscrew driven through the part to be fixed into a convenient wooden stud (or plastic plug into stone, etc.,) is more than adequate. Nowadays, most people prefer something like a Philips head screw because most people own a Philips head drill tip that fits into a battery powered cordless drill. In the old days, I too used a cordless drill, only it was called a 'Yankee' screwdriver, but it came without batteries unless I ate breakfast and/or lunch, plus plenty of alchohol after about 5 p.m. Och, I'm playing about. Just use a decent wood screw driven through the back of the cabinets and into the solid fixings available, such as studs, and there must be a few of those in a contemporary house. Don't forget to drill a clearance hole through the part to be fixed, and a pilot hole into the stud (or whatever0 for best effect. If you're building new in the American style, add a bunch of plywood firmly fixed between the studs wherever you can, and this is easy enough to do even between metal studs. Now, if you're going for a type of traditional building technique using a cavity wall of solid brick or stone exterior, and solid interior wall all on the classic foundations of about four feet deep under each load bearing wall, let me know because I've got some usefel tips for fixing cabinetry to seemingly impregnably built walls. Slainte.
WINDYCITYBOB19,
McFeeleys sells #10 course thread, washer head, square drives. Use a thread lube like accumpucky, which they also sell and drill pilots. http://www.McFeeleys.com
Ditch
I've NEVER had a problem with course drywall srews even with the cabs seriously overloaded as in the kitchen I just did for some folks....They not only loaded the cab shelves but added hooks on the front of each shelf to hange big heavy glasses.
What I always do after I hang a cab is pull as hard as I can on it to see how well its attached......if a drywall screw cracked etc etc...Pre test....ya know?
Be well
Namaste
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
cabinet screw, or any type of production screw (like a deck screw) with cup washers; 3-4", #8 or larger, preferably square drive, and definitely try to hit some studs, even if your wall is a panel. Traditional wood screws are obsolete, IMO, with the possible exception of fine furniture. I would not use drywall screws to hang cabinets under any conceivable circumstance.cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
Like was mentioned in another post. I use McFeelys. There a little pricey but ya get what ya pay for IMO Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
couldn't leave well enough alone, could you Andy?
I don't know how you can sleep with yourself at night, giving out advice like this , man oh man - I wonder how Larry, Daryl, and daryl hang cabinets.Excellence is its own reward!
I knew it. I just knew it.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Well, we're done venting, so we'll have to screw it up!Excellence is its own reward!
roar!Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Hey Piffin, Im not even going to touch this question again, because I've switched to #16 nails just drive em in hard and they'll hold, garrunteeit,`:>)
Doug
See rez, no problems
I put mine in with 1/2" galvanized carriage bolts. The nut on the outside of the siding doesn't look the best, but they really hold. The only thing I used to worry about is that vandals might remove the nuts. But, I've solved that problem by welding the nuts on. Burns the siding a bit, but they really hold.
Next time I'll tell you how I install stainless steel sinks.
Steve
Thats funny
cant wait to here about the sink
I cant get serious about this subject though cause I'm not going to let somepeople preach about their way is the only way and all that jive.
Still want to here about the sink
Doug
Hey I wonder How those new screws will work. The ones with the rounded grommet type head that embeds itself ito your composite decking. what the heck are they called ? They are new to me.
"I was born in the country, razed in the city, I'm a natural born shaker from my hips to the ground"
Lag screws are the only way to go. The last cabinets I installed I used probably 5/16 x 2.5 hex head lag screws into the studs. It pays to measure carefully so you go into the center of the wall stud. You loose a time with having to pre-drill, and the heads show pretty prominantly, but you don't worry about those things snapping off or pulling out... I used a socket and ratchet but you could probably speed things up by getting a cheap air wrench from Harbor Freight - assuming you could get the torque adjusted low enough not to strip things out.
What's a lag screw............is that the same thing as a lag bolt?
jocobe
Last we heard, there was no such thing as a lag bolt. Ever try to buy a lag nut to fit one?Excellence is its own reward!
Mcfeeleys.com has hardened steel screws, lots of sizes.
Man......I've worked the last 25 years as a millwork estimator and we always referred to them as lag bolts.......used them in all sorts situations when you couldn't get a nut on the other end.......never heard of a lag screw though. If you do a google search on lag bolts it wouldn't appear as if I were alone in my thinking. Type the URL address http://www.lagbolts.com and it even comes up as a hardware store!.........go figure. jocobe
Just one of those things where the vernacular has overtaken realityExcellence is its own reward!
We call'em lag screws out here in SoCal also maybe its a regional thing Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
Yeah, What would you machinists and mechanics know?
;)Excellence is its own reward!
I believe the vernacular came about because it has a 'bolt' head. In all my time in the business, I always called it, and heard it called, a lag bolt.
Yes, it's a screw, but vernacular is sometimes lazy and illogical. (Or should I say, sideways-logical ?) Regardless of that, you can walk into any hardware store and ask for either a lag screw, or a lag bolt, and you are equaly likely to get what you wanted.
All that said.....
What is in my back could probably correctly be called a lag bolt. 4 of them. They are just like a lag screw, only they do not have a bolt head on them. The 'head' end of the screw is threaded, and a nut is screwed on there. Pilot holes were driven into my vertebrae. Two lag-nuts were put on the lag bolt, and locked together. The lag bolts were wrenched into place, probably using something like an ordinary ratchet wrench, on the nuts. The nuts were then removed. Metal plates were fitted over the bolts, then the nuts were put back on, and locked into place.
This holds the two vertebrae forever equidistant from each other.Cut me some slack here
Quittin' Time
Luka- did all that come from an accident on the job or what?Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Yes.
I spent more than 15 years with constant back pain. A great amount of pain.
I had several herniated disks. Finaly one day, one of them just burst. Circumstances were just exactly right that what happened next was that the two bones above and below that disk were literaly broken. One in half, the other in 3 pieces. And a third bone was cracked.
I lay on the ground until I was found, and taken to the hospital. I had to wait 18 months for those bones to heal enough that they could do the surgery. My tools were all stolen. Etc.
Aside from the few times that I have been suicidal since then, it was probably the low point of my life.
Cut me some slack here
Quittin' Time
Luka>>>"They are just like a lag screw, only they do not have a bolt head on them. The 'head' end of the screw is threaded, and a nut is screwed on there..."
Damn it L, sounds like you have rail bolts in your back. If you ever want to know more about how they are installed there is a guy around here, whose name also begins with L, who would be more than happy to tell you all about it, and more. I'm working on inventing a tool to drive just such a fastener, and I think I will expand my developement towards surgical fasteners. Sure I could make a couple of bucks selling these drivers to carpenters, but I could be stinkin rich if I call them medical supplies.
So Ron do you use "Mil-spec" lag screws to attach those jet engines to the aircraft ya work on? :)Mike
It's O.k. to think out of the box, Just don't walk off of the plank!
Nah believe it or not the gov has done away with most of the Mil-specs, they are going to comercial (off the shelf) if applicable items.... Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
A lag screw is an improperly used old fastening device known as the lag nail. Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Just so long as they're not used by laggardsExcellence is its own reward!
Oh no…….not at all so.
Only a laggard is knowledgeable enough to understand how a lag nail is used; hence the word to describe one who is practiced in the art of using said device. One must be born a laggard as it is an artsy skill that cannot be properly learned nor executed other than by those of lower breeding.
The device itself is commonly misunderstood by “fussy” builders and carpenters. It’s really a spin-off of its first cousin, the ring-shank nail. It’s quite fortuitous for laggards that some very intuitive person realized that a fastener with even more pronounced rings to grip the wood should be made and marketed or their innate talent would go unnoticed.
The proper installation sequence is as follows: 1- A suitably sized pilot hole is drilled for the device. 2- A realization falls upon the user that it’s too far back to the toolbox or just too taxing upon the wrist to use a wrench or rachet and socket, and so the hammer is therefore, by deduction, the only appropriate insertion tool as it's within reach. 3- The lag nail is applied to the hole via the hammer whilst looking over one’s shoulder for the potential pesky onlooker or detractor of this fine art. 4- The words “ There….that oughta hold” must be uttered/muttered upon completion to consecrate the lag nail or it surely will fail.
This description is for educational purposes only and should never be taken as an encouragement to attempt the practice without proper lineage.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
LOL, I think I'm gonna like having you around...Excellence is its own reward!
Whats to think about ? I already do.
: )Cut me some slack here
Quittin' Time
I have been buying my cabinet insall screws from Kreg Jig company. I also use them to pull the face fromes together. (I think the screws are manufactured by Quickscrew) I have never had one break. And they are a nice bronze color with a washer head and the points are very sharp so they start easy. (I like easy)
Go with cabinet screws Torx drive (they were invented in the US). Holds onto the driver better than a phillips with and will not strip. Use a dab of thread lube.