There are two basic types of Euro hinges: concealed or long-arm. Both have a cup on one end of the hinge that fits into a round mortise on the inside back of the cabinet door; creating this mortise involves simply drilling a stopped hole. On the other end of the hinge, a mounting plate fastens either to a face frame stile or the inside wall of the cabinet carcass with screws. No mortise is required.

Compact styles are one-piece hinges, while long-arm styles have two main components that snap together at the mounting plate. Longarm hinges are particularly handy, because they make doors easy to remove.

Door Details

The manner in which a door interfaces with the cabinet’s carcass will impact which Euro hinge options are available for your project. Inset doors (left illustration) fit completely inside and flush with the cabinet opening. They’re common on both frameless and face frame cabinet styles. Some doors, particularly on older cabinets, have a 3/8″ x 3/8″ rabbet around their back face, enabling them to recess partially into the face frame opening (center illustration). Other door styles overlay the front edges of the cabinet carcass or a face frame by the full thickness of the door (right illustration). Euro hinges are made to accommodate these full-overlay doors with varying amounts of overlap around the opening; this may range from 3/8″ up to 1-1⁄4″. Hinge descriptions in catalogs or online will specify inset or overlay style, face frame or frameless cabinet type and maximum swing range, among other important product details.

Installation Process

All the conveniences of these production-quality hinges can also be part of your shop-built cabinet projects, and they’re super easy to install! If you can drill holes, you can mount these hinges successfully on the first try.

The photo series explains the process for mounting typical long-arm hinges on a frameless cabinet with a frame-and-panel door. Most Euro hinges require that the cup mortise be drilled with a 35 mm Forstner bit. Using a drill press for this step is best, but a handheld drill will also work, provided you drill carefully and not too deep. A JIG IT Deluxe Concealed Hinge Drilling System from Rockler simplifies the task.

Jigs Make It Easy!

Rockler offers several more inexpensive jigs which will make the installation process even easier. A JIG IT Hinge Cup Jig enables you to set the Forstner bit the exact distance away from a drill press fence to locate the hinge cup mortises accurately on the cabinet door. Then, several options of JIG IT Mounting Plate Templates can help locate the hinge mounting plate screws on the cabinet or face frame without measuring.

For an informative overview to help you choose the right Euro-style hinges, visit here.

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On a recent file cabinet project, I wanted to have two locking drawers. I selected cam locks to do the job, and even found them in an antique brass finish. Since I was installing the locks on drawers with false fronts, I needed the cam barrel to be long enough to reach through the entire drawer front … 1-1/4″ thick in my case. I purchased 1-3/4″ cylinder locks and set out to install them on my finished drawer boxes.

The first step is to mark the location of the hole in the false drawer front. To determine where the hole should be located, assemble the cam lock and choose which cam arm to use. The kit comes with a short, bent-arm cam and a long, straight cam. Based on the dimensions of my cabinet frame, I selected the long, straight cam.

With the center of the hole location marked on a piece of painter’s tape, head to the drill press. Use a 3/4″ Forstner bit to drill a hole through the false drawer front. Make sure to back up the cut to prevent chipout on the back side.

Next, mount the false drawer front onto the drawer box as you normally would. Set the false drawer front for an even reveal, and screw it to the drawer. Now chuck the 3/4″ Forstner bit into a handheld drill and finish drilling through the drawer box. Clamp a scrap of wood to the inside of the drawer to back up the cut.

Install the cam lock into the drawer, and use the optional trim ring if desired. A two-pronged washer pierces the inside of the drawer to prevent the lock from turning. That is followed by the nut to hold everything firmly in place. Then select either the 90° stop or 180° stop. I use the 90° stop for a shorter locking action. That is followed by the cam and cam retaining screw.

Great; now the cam lock is installed on your drawer and you’re just about finished. There’s just one problem … there’s nothing for the cam to engage in the cabinet. The usual solution is to mount a small metal tab inside the cabinet frame.

The problem with this method is the tab hangs down and can snare the file contents as you open the drawer. To get around this limitation, I used a biscuit joiner to cut a slot in the cabinet frame. Mark the location where the cam meets the cabinet when the drawer is fully closed. For the 1-3/4″ long cam lock, the slot was centered 1-3/4″ back from the front of the drawer. Then set your biscuit joiner for maximum depth of cut. Mine is marked “0,” “10,” “20” and “M.” I selected the M setting for maximum depth of cut. Adjust the fence on the tool until the blade aligns with your mark and plunge a single slot for each drawer. Reinstall the drawer and test the lock operation. If the cam tab hangs up on the edge of the slot, make a small fence adjustment on your biscuit joiner and widen the slot.

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Obviously there’s a ton of specialized hardware out there beyond the scope of this article (lazy Susans, flipper door hardware, electric lifts, etc.). For such specific hardware mounting information, I strongly urge you to read the instructions that come with your hardware. Better still, you can almost always find instructional videos on the Internet that show you exactly how to install special types of hardware.

Choosing Hardware

Peruse the pages of a hardware catalog, and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of choices. Unless the style of the piece you’re building dictates the style of hardware you’ll use (Shaker, Craftsman, Ultra Modern), your hardware choices can have a significant effect on the appearance. For example, a simple, clean lined cabinet fitted with stainless steel wire pulls will tend towards a contemporary look; white ceramic knobs offer a country feeling, and antique brass bail style pulls lend a classical appearance.

Hardware that’s prominently located (knobs, latches, etc.) should be chosen to match the scale of the parts it’s used with. For example, tiny pulls on big doors may seem out of place or simply appear incorrect.

Hardware finish also affects final appearance considerably and should be chosen not only to suit the style of your piece, but to work harmoniously with the color and grain of the wood your project is built from. For example, black anodized pulls offer good contrast when fitted on a natural maple project but likely would be too subtle if used on a dark wood piece.

If you find brass or bronze hardware that you like, but it has too shiny a finish, you can actually create a darker, duller look with a brass darkening solution. Start by removing the protective clear coating from the shiny brass by scrubbing thoroughly with a steel wool pad dipped in acetone or lacquer thinner (wear protective gloves). Now fill a small glass bowl or disposable plastic cup with darkening solution and immerse the hardware in it, including screws used to mount the hardware. Leave them soaking until they achieve the desired shade of darkness, then rinse them thoroughly in clear water. If the pieces still aren’t dark enough, repeat the soaking/rinsing process. If pieces end up too dark, you can lighten their finish by rubbing them with fine steel wool.

Screw-on Hardware

One of my biggest hardware mounting pet peeves is seeing beautiful, expensive screwed-on hardware that’s either mounted crooked or has screws with stripped heads. To prevent these problems, here are some practical steps to follow when mounting hinges, latches, trunk corners, or just about any other kind of screwed-on hardware. Start by determining and marking the exact position of your hardware. If the hardware spans two separate parts, say a clasp fastener that locks two halves of a tabletop, set the parts together just as they will be after final assembly. If there’s supposed to be a gap between the parts, use cardboard or thin wood strips to shim them. Now set the hardware in place and either clamp it down or use double-stick tape to secure it.

If your hardware has steel screws, or brass-plated steel screws (if you’re unsure, check with a magnet), you’re all set to drive them in place. However, when driving soft brass or bronze screws into harder woods (oak, maple, etc.), it’s best to enlarge the pilot holes with a slightly bigger drill bit (try a bit that’s 1/64″ or 1/32″ larger), to avoid breaking the screws or stripping their heads. You can also “pre tap.” Whether you re-drill or pre tap the pilot holes, it’s best to run a test with spare screws and a scrap of your project’s wood.

When you’re ready to drive the mounting screws, it’s important to choose a screwdriver that fits the screw’s drive recess (Phillips, square, etc.) correctly. If you don’t, you’re in danger of the driver deforming the screw heads in some way and leaving an ugly result. Take special care when driving Phillips head screws, as there seems to be a stunning number of different sizes and styles. If your hardware comes with slotted-head screws, I urge you to replace them with Phillips head screws — it’s all too easy for a slotted screwdriver to slip out and ruin the screw head or, worse, scratch the hardware or gouge the wood!

To make driving easier, lubricate mounting screws by rubbing a little wax from an old candle into the threads. To seat the hardware evenly, run all the screws most of the way in first, then go back and tighten them fully, taking care not to apply too much torque. To prevent breaking or stripping screws when using a portable powered drill or electric screwdriver, set the tool’s clutch to the lowest torque setting that’ll get the job done.

If you do get a “spinner” — a screw that’s fully driven, but won’t stop turning — an old, but effective, trick is to un-mount the hardware, and apply the toothpick trick. After letting the glue dry, re-drill the pilot hole and remount the hardware; just go a little easy when driving the screw.

If you accidentally break off a screw while driving it, don’t panic; if any of the shank is still exposed, try gripping it with locking pliers and unscrewing it. If the shank breaks below the surface, you’ll need to drill out the broken screw with a tubular screw extractor, plug the hole with a short length of dowel, then re-drill the pilot hole and drive a new screw.

Nail-on Hardware

Small nails and pins are often used to mount hardware such as small latches, hinges and box corners. But driving pins directly into hardwoods is simply begging for problems. To keep small fasteners from bending or driving crooked, it’s best to create pilot holes before driving them in place. After positioning your hardware and securing it, use an awl to mark all holes. Just make sure pieces, such as box corners, are fully seated.

Choose a bit for pilot holes that’s slightly smaller than the diameter of the pins. Unfortunately, a 1/16″ diameter bit (the smallest from a regular drill set) is too large for pins size 16-gauge and smaller. Use bits from a numbered small drill bit set for these pilot holes: #55 for 16-gauge; #63 for 18-gauge; #72 for 20-gauge. Also, the chucks on many portable drills can’t handle bits this small, so use a rotary tool fitted with a drill chuck.

To make the pins easier to drive, rub a little wax on them and use a tack hammer or other small hammer. To avoid smashing your fingers, hold the pin between the teeth of a regular hair comb and leave the comb in place until the fastener is almost fully driven. After removing the comb, carefully tap the pin in until its head is in firm contact with the hardware. Don’t drive it in any farther: you’ll likely deform the pin’s head, and an over-driven nail can easily distort and buckle thin brass hardware.

Mounting Hinges

Hinges are needed for any project that has a door, lid, hatch or other articulated parts. Proper installation varies considerably: some hinges are designed to be surface-mounted; others must be mortised into place, while still others require special drilled or routed recesses.

The downside of surface-mounted hinges is that they typically leave a gap between the hinged parts. For closer fitting parts, there are several kinds of hinges that are easy to mount, including Rockler’s Easy Mortise hinges. Hidden barrel hinges are also very easy to install: Simply drill a pair of holes, one for the cylindrical portion of each hinge half, and press them into place.

Euro-style concealed hinges, popularly used with frameless cabinets, require a large pocket hole (usually 35 mm) for mounting one half of the hinge. On large doors, these holes can be awkward to bore using a drill press. An alternative strategy is to use a drilling guide to keep the big bit square to the surface.

Mortised Hinges

When a project calls for basic butt hinges or any hardware that requires mortising into the surface of the work, here’s my preferred method. After determining the location of the hinges on the work, position each hinge leaf and mark its outline with a razor or marking knife. For rounded or irregularly shaped hardware, stick the leaf down with double-stick tape and carefully trace around it.

Next, use a small plunge router (or laminate trimmer) with a small-diameter straight bit to remove the mortise waste. In most cases, mortises should be cut just deep enough to position the hinge leaf flush or just slightly proud of the wood surface. But there are exceptions, such as when the mortises must be deep enough to compensate for the thickness of the hinge’s barrel.

Before routing, darken your knife lines with a pencil, so you can see them more easily, then rout to within about 1/32″ of each line. By setting the bit depth carefully, routing assures a flat pocket of consistent depth. If you accidentally rout too deep, you can compensate by putting a bit of tape on the underside of the hinge leaf, or by shimming it with a small piece of thin cardboard.

If you have dozens of mortises to cut, say for a production run of jewelry boxes, you’ll get the most consistent results by using a template and plunge router fitted with a guide bushing. The template clamps atop the workpiece and has an opening sized and shaped to produce the desired mortise.

The bushing rides around the opening, allowing a straight bit to rout the mortise with great precision. You can make your own template, or use a ready-made system, such as the JIG IT® Hinge Mortising System.

Knobs and Pulls

Unless your cabinet or furniture piece is fitted with push-to-open hardware or has doors and drawers with routed finger grips, you’ll need to install some sort of knobs or pulls. When positioning these on drawer fronts, centering them vertically seems like a logical thing to do. However, you’ll find that this doesn’t always look right, especially on the lower drawers of a dresser or kitchen cabinet. This is due to the foreshortened perspective we see when gazing down at lower objects: centered pulls end up looking too low. Hence, it’s common practice to mount such pulls/knobs a little above center. There’s no hard and fast rule for how much higher; it’s best to temporarily tape pulls or knobs onto the finished piece, stand back, and see what looks best to your eye.

Unless you have only a few to mount, measuring and marking holes for each knob or pull separately is time-consuming and can lead to mistakes. It takes only a few minutes to make a drilling template that will guarantee that all holes end up exactly where they should be. Holes drilled through the template at the desired locations serve to guide the drill bit. Because the stop strips overlap both sides of the plywood, the template can be flipped over and set at either end of a long drawer face, allowing you to drill holes for pulls on both right and left sides.

When the need arises for mounting knobs in thick parts (or when you simply don’t want machine screw heads to show on the inside of a drawer), use a dowel screw.

If the holes you drill for mounting knobs or pulls are slightly off, all is not lost. In lieu of filling the holes and re-drilling (trust me, you’ll see those bad holes no matter how well you fill them), you can fit the pulls with backplates (or choose bail style pulls which have their own wide backing plates). Many styles of pulls (and knobs) have matching backplates, but you can always mix and match, or even make your own backplates from wood.

Drawer Slides

If you are using metal drawer slides in your cabinet or furniture project, your choices are almost as overwhelming as those for hinges and pulls. Basically, you need to choose a set of slides with adequate length and weight capacity as well as enough extension to allow easy access to items in your drawers. These days, some slides are available in different finishes, including black, white and brown. Using a black slide with light wood drawers can look classier than the typical nickel-plated steel slides.

Once you’ve picked the slides that best suit your application, you face the challenge of building your carcass and drawers to suit the requirements of the slides. Read thoroughly through the mounting instructions before you start building to avoid ending up with drawers that don’t fit or won’t work with your slides. One problem to avoid at all costs is ending up with a cabinet and/or drawer boxes that aren’t square. If the sides of the carcass are not parallel, or aren’t square to the front, your drawers will never close properly, regardless of the type of slides you’re using. Even if you adjust the individual slides forward or backward so that they catch in the closed position, your drawer’s face will still end up crooked relative to the cabinet’s face frame or front edges.

Another all-too-common mistake is to fail to subtract the thickness of the slides from the overall width of the drawer. If you find yourself in this situation, you may be able to avoid building new drawers by switching to under-mount style slides (if they’re just a skosh too wide, you may be able to sand down the drawer sides to offer more clearance). On the other hand, if your drawers end up being too narrow, it’s fairly easy to install shim (strips of cardboard or veneer) under the cabinet-mounted portion of each slide.

In order to end up with drawers that operate smoothly with faces that are evenly aligned to the cabinet and to one another, each pair of drawer slides must be mounted at precisely the same height and parallel to one another. Further, the cabinet-mounted portion of each slide must be square (vertically) to the front of the cabinet/drawer housing. You can certainly achieve this by careful measurement, but it’s easier to use a universal slide mounting jig. The jig aligns and supports the cabinet-mounted portion of the slide while you screw it in place.

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It’s easy to be confused. Screws are undoubtedly the most versatile fasteners used in woodworking, but there are a lot of choices. Wood screws are handy for quickly building jigs and clamping forms, joining cabinet and furniture parts, mounting hardware and trim, and much more. Screws form strong connections between parts made from solid wood, plywood and other sheet goods without the need for cut joinery. From heads to drives, points to threads, platings to coatings, our author gives you a thorough education in the options available in the world of modern screws. or adhesives (and unlike glued joints, screws are removable, so you can take apart whatever you’ve built). Screws are also good for reinforcing parts assembled with traditional joinery — for example, pinning tenons in their mortises.

Choosing the right wood screw used to be simple pick a zinc or brass screw with the right size and length for the job at hand. But technological developments in construction and wood products manufacturing have spawned an extensive range of new screws in recent decades. There are so many choices, it’ll positively make your head spin!

I’ve written this article and shot this video to serve as a short primer on wood screws. Close examination of the various parts of a screw — the material it’s made from, the design of its head, drive style, point and threads, the platings and coatings that protect it from corrosion — will give you a better understanding of all the design and technology that goes into the manufacture
of every single screw. Hopefully, this exploration will better empower you the next time you need to choose the right screws for the project at hand.

Screw Types & Materials

Among the many materials wood screws are made from — brass, bronze, aluminum, etc. — steel screws are the most useful for woodworking and interior DIY projects. They’re strong, affordable and readily available in a vast range of sizes. But old-fashioned tapered steel wood screws can be a pain to use. Many woodworkers switched to inexpensive drywall screws when they became readily available a few decades ago. Made from harder steel that can penetrate wallboard and studs, drywall screws drive in quickly and without the need for predrilled pilot holes. However, they’re relatively brittle and will snap when subjected to high drive forces or stress, making them a poor choice for projects requiring strong construction.

Fortunately, a different kind of screw has largely replaced traditional tapered and drywall screws. “Production screws” have points and threads sharp and strong enough to penetrate the hardest woods and manmade materials — even some metals. Their heads and shanks are durable enough to withstand high torque delivered during driving with a power drill or impact driver, and can withstand the punishing stresses that screw joined furniture or cabinet parts may be subjected to. Hardened-steel screws with brands including GRK Fasteners, SPAX®, PowerPro and Saber Drive are often sold as “construction screws” or “multipurpose screws.”

Unless they’re specifically plated/coated for exterior use, hardened steel screws aren’t especially weather resistant, and they are best reserved for indoor projects. Deck screws are basically production screws that have been plated and/or coated to increase their corrosion resistance. They’re great for outdoor projects, like playhouses or decks. For even greater resistance to rust and corrosion, the two best screw materials are silicon bronze and stainless steel. Weaker than regular steel screws, chromium alloy stainless steel screws come in two popular grades: Grade 305 stainless is good for applications where coated deck screws don’t have sufficient corrosion resistance, while grade 316 (sometimes referred to as marine-grade stainless) are best for projects that are exposed to salt air or in areas where severe corrosion is likely to occur.

Head Type

Regardless of a screw’s material, size or length, the shape of its head has a significant impact in how well it works in any particular application. Head designs can be divided into two groups: those that sink flush with the work surface and those that stand proud of it. In the first group, trim head screws and bugle head screws have heads designed to automatically sink flush in all but the hardest materials (e.g., rosewood, ebony). Bugle head screws drive in quickly and have good holding power in most materials. Trim head screws are a good choice when you only need modest holding power and don’t want the head of the fastener to show too prominently. When driven into pre-drilled holes, they are a better choice than finish nails for setting door jambs or mounting trim and moldings: trim head screws are less likely to split thin or delicate wood parts.

Traditional flat and oval head screws lend a nice clean look to projects but require a conical recess for their heads drilled with a countersink. In contrast, most flat head production screws are self-countersinking: they create their own recess that allows the head to sit flush. Quickscrews’ unique “Funnel Head” screws, designed for use with veneered plywoods and coated sheet materials like melamine, have double serrations, with very fine teeth that cut into delicate surfaces without tearing them up.

Among the screw head types that sit proud of the work surface are traditional round head, pan head and cheese head (aka fillister head) screws. Each has a relatively small head with a flat bottom that bears against the surface of the workpiece. This offers a reasonable amount of hold in hardwoods, but in softer species, the smaller heads tend to crush the wood at the surface. When the joined pieces are stressed, the screw’s effective hold is reduced. Screws with larger heads offer more contact area with the work surface and a greater resistance to penetration and pull-through.

Truss head screws (aka “mushroom head” screws) have a head much like a metalworker’s pan head screw, only the overall head is flatter and larger in diameter. These are a great choice for mounting hardware such as drawer slides, where you want good contact with the hardware but need the screw head to not stick up too far. Washer head screws look like regular round head screws with small washers set under their heads. The added surface area on the underside of the head prevents them from sinking too deeply, especially when driven with power drivers.

Appropriately named “super washer head” screws have even larger diameter washer heads. They excel wherever two parts are joined but must remain adjustable, such as attaching a drawer front to a drawer box. Wafer head (and flanged head) screws have large, flat coin-like heads. Most wafer heads, including FastCap®’s “PowerHead” screws, are not only large, but are also very thin, giving them great retaining power and a low profile.

WATCH: VIDEO – WoodScrews 101

Drive Type

Unless they are building period-style furniture, few woodworkers still use traditional tapered wood screws with slotted heads, as they tend to slip off the screwdriver or driver bit and “cam out” easily, especially when driven with a cordless drill or impact driver.

However, many woodworkers still do use Phillips head screws, which came into production in the 1930s and became popular because their cross-slot recess automatically centers on the tip of the screwdriver. They do have a tendency to cam out, especially when used with power drivers. But a little-known fact is that Henry Phillips designed his screws to do this on purpose! To help speed up automobile production, the cam out helped prevent workers from over-tightening Phillips head screws with early power drivers, which lacked torque-limiting adjustability. Today’s woodworkers reduce the tendency to cam out by carefully setting the clutches on their power drivers. POZIDRIV®, a modern variant of the Phillips drive, was developed to retain centering while reducing caming out. It is a good choice for larger/longer screws that require lots of torque when driven into hard materials.

Although there are dozens of modern drive styles found on screw fasteners (hex, polydrive, spanner head, etc.), two have become particularly popular in recent decades: Robertson square and TORX® star drives. The square “Robertson” drive was developed in Canada in the early 1900s, but Peter L. Roberston’s reluctance to license his screws to industrial users (like Henry Ford) kept it from becoming popular in the United States. Only in recent decades have companies like online fastener retailer McFeely’s started marketing them to woodworkers. TORX drive screws, with a distinctive six-point star pattern, came out in the late ’60s and quickly became a popular production fastener used on everything from cars to motorcycles to consumer electronics. The majority of TORX-drive woodworking fasteners are deck screws, but the drive style is gaining popularity for general-purpose construction and cabinet screws, too. Robertson drivers come in six sizes, but #1 (green), #2 (red) and #3 (black) drivers are used for wood screws from size #3 to size #14. TORX drivers come in two dozen different sizes (T1 to T100), but T15, T20 and T25 drivers cover most common wood screws.

Both Robertson and TORX drives have two qualities that make them a great choice for woodworkers who use power drivers: stick fit and resistance to cam out. Stick fit is the ability of the driver bit and drive recess to form a temporary connection. Once you set a square or star drive screw on the tip of a drive bit, you can drive it without having to hold onto the screw. This not only frees up your extra hand, but it allows you to drive screws into all kinds of hard-to-reach places. TORX and Robertson drives both feature deep recesses into which the head of the driver fits snugly. The recess has near-vertical sidewalls, which means very little need for down pressure on the driver to keep it engaged. This not only significantly reduces the chance of cam out, but also reduces driver wear and damage.

Two other screw drive styles are worth mentioning: Pozisquare® and Outlaw drive. Pozisquare (aka combo drive) is a hybrid that combines a #2 Phillips and a #2 square drive in a single screw head recess. You can use either a Phillips or Robertson bit to drive them, but a special Pozisquare (combo) bit gives you better stick fit and cam out resistance. The new kid on the block, Outlaw Fasteners, raised more than $100k via Kickstarter and created their own line of unique deck screws. A three-tiered hexagonal head recess offers 18 points of contact for a super stick fit with virtually no cam out. In lieu of using their special driver, Outlaw screws can be driven with a regular hex driver.

Hiding or Covering up Screw Heads

Screws can provide a nice decorative detail on a project: imagine a row of shiny brass screws punctuating the edge of a walnut cabinet or a mahogany jewelry box. But when you don’t want screw heads to show, hiding them or covering them are both options. The simplest way to make flat head screws disappear is to set them into counterbored holes topped with flush-trimmed wood plugs that match the workpiece. You can drill pilot holes and counterbores in separate steps, or use a special bit that performs both tasks at once. Starborn Industries’ Pro Plug® system is a very nice kit designed to make the entire process quick and easy. It includes a special countersink/counterbore bit, a glue bottle tip designed for applying glue into the holes, screws and tapered wood plugs (available in a dozen different wood species).

If you’d rather enhance the presence of fasteners instead of entirely hiding them, decorative domed or button plugs or screw covers are the way to go. You can see a variety in the photo below. Decorative wood plugs glue into counterbored holes and can lend a nice detail while keeping screws hidden. Craftsman-style hole plugs (available from www.rockler.com) are sized to fit into 3/8″ holes, but they have square heads with pyramid-shaped tops that resemble the chiseled ends of small through tenons traditionally used in Mission style furniture. For modern style woodwork, try metal hole caps, available in various metallic finishes. I really like the look of black anodized aluminum plugs on a blond wood surface. Inexpensive and quick to install, FastCap plastic screw cap covers have small tabs that snap into the head recesses of square drive, flat head screws. White caps are perfect for camouflaging screws in melamine cabinets, and you can remove the caps if you need to disassemble the piece in the future.

Screw Points & Threads

A wood screw’s point and threads have a mighty big task to accomplish. They must pierce the surface of wood, then pull the screw in, without causing the wood to split or splinter. Once driven, the threads have to hold the screw firmly in the wood so that it doesn’t pull out or allow the parts it joins to separate, even if they’re stressed. An old-school tapered wood screw needs a pilot hole when driven into all but the softest materials: their points are relatively dull and their shallow threads don’t offer much holding power.

In contrast, production, construction and deck screws have very sharp points and threads that are larger in diameter than the shank of the screw itself. This enables them to penetrate most materials without the need for a pilot hole, which adds up to a huge time savings when installing them! There’s no area of wood screw development that’s seen more innovation in recent years than thread and point design. Let’s look at both features in depth:

The Point

A good screw point bites into non-pilot-drilled surfaces rapidly, pulling the screw down quickly and creating an entry hole for the screw’s shank and threads. The majority of production/construction/deck screws rely on a Type 17 auger point to get this job done. This needle-sharp point penetrates even the hardest materials — and your fingers, so be careful when handling them! A self-tapping flute just behind the point cuts a hole through the surface while channeling debris up the shank of the screw. This helps to pull the screw in while reducing outward pressure that can cause splits and bulges. In lieu of a fluted auger point, some SPAX construction screws feature a 4CUT point with a squarish end that pushes aside wood fibers as the screw is driven instead of cleaving them.

The Threads

Once the point has pulled a wood screw down into the material, it’s up to the threads to continue driving it the rest of the way in. Conventional wisdom has always been that screws with fine threads are best for hardwoods — oak, cherry, maple, birch, etc. — while coarse-threaded screws drive and hold better in softwoods, plywood and composite sheet goods (particleboard, MDF, etc.). However, newer thread designs have changed the rules and made many production/construction screws suitable for use in a wide range of materials and applications.

Some threads, including the QuickCutter, lead spiral and cross-cut threads, are designed to reduce the torque needed to drive the screw. In some specialized screw threads, a section of knurled shoulder thread, just above the regular thread of the screw, enlarges the hole slightly as the screw is driven, allowing the screw shank to turn more easily while helping to increase the clamping force between joined parts. Here are some of the newer thread designs and their intended advantages:

QuickCutter thread (Quickscrews production screws): Deep threads and an extra-long flute above the point.

Lead spiral thread (Quickscrews Funnel head screws): A spiral thread just above the tip pulls the screw into the wood quickly.

Cross-cut thread (Power Pro outdoor wood screws): A dual thread design with a standard outer thread and an inner thread that helps reduce friction at the root of the screw.

Hi-Lo thread (Rockler Hi-lo screws; Kreg® Hi-lo pocket-hole screws): A dualthread screw with a coarser, sharper outer thread and a finer inner thread. Creates a multipurpose screw that offers good holding power and less strip-out in all woods and sheet goods.

CEE thread (GRK R4 and RSS screws; Outlaw deck screws): A knurled shoulder just above the regular thread of the screw.

Reverse thread section (Starborn Cap-Tor xd deck screws): A section of reversed thread just under the head of the deck screw helps prevent dimpling and mushrooming (raised area around the screw head). A similar reverse thread on SPAX stainless steel wood deck screws helps prevent the screw from backing out as the lumber dries out.

Euro screw thread: Melamine, particleboard, and MDF are notorious for their poor holding power when joined with regular screws. In the 1970s, German hardware manufacturer Hafele introduced Confirmat oversized screws specifically for building ready-toassemble Euro-style furniture and cabinets. Confirmat (or similar Firmit) fasteners act like threaded steel dowels, forming a strong, stiff butt joint between parts.

W-Cut thread (GRK RSS and Cabinet screws) and Serrated thread (Saberdrive and SPAX screws): A saw-like serrated edge cut into the threads designed to slice through wood like a circular saw blade.

Plating and Coatings

In the final step of manufacturing, most steel wood screws receive some kind of plating (a metallurgical process done to bare metal screws) or coating (applied to either bare metal screws or already-plated screws). Screws are plated and/or coated for three reasons.

1. Prevent Corrosion

Regular steel screws rust quickly when exposed to moisture. Plating not only helps keep the screw itself from rusting, but prevents rust that forms on the screw from staining the wood around it. The most common plating on wood screws is bright zinc, largely a decorative finish that provides only a small amount of corrosion resistance. Zinc screws can develop a dull white corrosion (“white rust”) unless protected with a clear coating or a colored chromate, such as yellow zinc. Bright golden yellow zinc screws have more corrosion resistance than bright zinc, so this coating is common on construction screws. Black oxide (black phosphorous) plating prevents steel screws from rust staining wood, but offers little protection against serious corrosion.

Galvanizing processes, e.g., electroplating and hot dipping, have traditionally provided screws with the best protection against rust, but modern deck and construction screws are also available with high-tech coatings or plating/coating combinations for outdoor environments:

Blue-Kote (Kreg pocket-hole screws): Blue screws with three anti-corrosion layers; weather-resistant.

NoCoRode PLUS Pro-Master wood screws (sold by McFeely’s): almost 20 times more corrosion-resistant than standard yellow zinc plating; work well with most outdoor woods.

Epoxy Coated: Starborn’s Deckfast® Epoxy Coated screws provide corrosion resistance and come in four colors (gray, green, red and tan) to match treated lumber.

Climatek: A GRK coating consisting of six layers of zinc and polymers; approved for use with highly corrosive pressure-treated lumber.

HCR: SPAX “high corrosion resistance” screws have a dual barrier coating system with an electrically applied substrate and a proprietary organic topcoat designed to extend the longevity of the screw even when used with treated lumber.

Weather Maxx Bronze Ceramic Coat: Power Pro brand screws with multiple layers of zinc and polymer-based coatings. Recommended for use with ACQ, CA and CCA treated lumber, plus cedar and redwood where they won’t stain the wood.

2. Enhance Appearance

Other color choices are available besides silvery bright zinc. Brass-plated screws mimic solid brass screws but are stronger and cost less. Black oxide plated screws’ look works well with contemporary style projects.

To help hide fasteners without counterboring and plugging, some screws come with heads coated with epoxy paint. White or sand (tan) heads match the color of white or almond melamine sheet material. Starborn’s HEADCOTE® stainless-steel screws have heads colored to match commonly used decking lumber as well as PVC and composite materials.

3. Reduce Friction

The better the surface lubricity of a screw, the easier it is to drive and the less power it takes to drive it in. Slippery screws are also less likely to cam out, break or get stuck when they encounter knots or dense grain.

You can lubricate screws yourself by rubbing them with candle or beeswax before driving them, but it’s much easier to buy screws already treated with a lubricating coating. Berenson coats both their plain and zinc-plated screws with a thin wax coating, which reduces friction and leaves no residue. Square-X Drive screws and Highpoint screws have specially formulated dry coatings that make them easier to drive while preventing surface corrosion (they’re recommended for interior applications only). For outdoor projects, FastenMaster TrussLOK® construction screws have an anti-friction topcoat applied over their corrosion-resistant epoxy coating.

Watch the VIDEO: Wood Screws 101

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Face frames provide attachment points for door hinge and latch hardware, while hiding the front edges of the cabinet box. They can also help correct minor plywood bowing and give you a means of fitting one cabinet against its neighbor. You can use a variety of joinery options for making face frames, including dowels, mortise-and-tenons or even small biscuits, but none of these alternatives are as fast as pocket screws. With a simple jig, making a pocket-screw joint is simple: Drill a pair of stopped holes and drive two self-tapping screws to lock the joint. Here’s how to dress up your next cabinet project with a pocket screwed face frame.

Step 1: Joint and plane stock for your face frame parts so the stiles and rails
will be flat and square. Face frame components are typically between 1 1/2 and 2
in. wide. Rip the rails and stiles to the width you desire, and leave the
workpieces overly long so you can cut them to exact length as you build the frame.
The outermost stiles should run the full height of your cabinet, with the top and
bottom rails fitting in between them. Any intermediate stiles, such as for the door
divider we’ll show here, should fit between the top and bottom rails.

Step 2: Measure the height of your cabinet carcass, and crosscut the outer stiles
to length. An easy way to find the exact length of the top and bottom rails is to
set the stiles together and so they’re lined up with the outside face of the
cabinet side. Use a long rule to measure from the stiles over to the opposite edge
of the cabinet (see Photo 1). Add 1/4 in. to this measurement; the extra length
will make your face frame overhang the edges of the cabinet by 1/8 in. to give you
a little “wiggle” room when installing it and, if necessary, scribing it to an
adjacent cabinet. Cut the top and bottom rails to length.

Step 3: On a large worksurface, set the rails and stiles face down and into
position. Measure for any intermediate divider stiles or other rails. Cut those
pieces to length as well. Dry-fit the entire face frame together, and label both
parts of each joint with letters or hash marks so you can keep their orientation
clear. It’s also helpful to mark an arrow on each joint to show which piece will
receive the screw pockets and which direction to drive the screws (see Photo 2).
The easiest joints to drill are those with screws driven through the ends of one
joint part and into the edges of the mating part. On the face frame shown here,
we’ll drill the ends of the rails and door divider.

Step 4: Making a pocket-hole joint involves boring a pair of steeply pitched holes
into one workpiece with a special stepped drill bit. Set the drilling depth by
tightening a stop collar on the bit (see Photo 3). The instructions that come with
your pocket-hole jig will explain where to tighten this collar, based on the style
of the jig. This General Tool’s version also recommends fastening the jig to a scrap
base so you can clamp it to your worksurface.

Step 5: Drill pairs of pocket holes into the marked faces of the parts you
identified in Step 3 (see Photo 4). To keep the drill bit from clogging, drill each
hole in a couple of plunging passes, pulling it back out of the jig holes to clear
the chips.

Step 6: Assemble the face frame parts by driving self-tapping face frame screws
down into the screw pockets and across the joints (see Photo 5). There’s no need to
drill pilot holes in the mating parts first. Be sure to use plenty of clamps to
hold each joint securely together: the screws sometimes push the workpieces apart
as they tap their holes. A locking face-frame clamp (silver in photo) is
particularly useful for this job. Note: You can reinforce pocket-screw joints with
glue as well, although this isn’t mandatory.

Step 7: Plane, scrape or sand the back face of your assembled face frame to flatten
any minor mismatching at the joint seams. If you’re planning to use typical
mortised butt hinges, now is a good time to cut the mortises in the stiles. You
should also decide how you’ll fasten the face frame to your cabinet. You can use
glue alone or in conjunction with dowels or biscuits to make the connection
invisible. Pin nails or 18-brads also work nicely, if you don’t mind puttying over
the nail heads and seeing those tiny spots on the finished cabinet. Set the face
frame on the cabinet and adjust it for an even overhang on the stile edges. Use
plenty of clamps to secure it in place. As you tighten the clamps, you can push or
pull the carcass top, bottom and sides a little bit to adjust for any minor bowing
that may be present. Drive the fasteners (see Photo 6).

Step 8: Since the cabinet shown here will be stand-alone, we’re choosing to trim
off the stile overhangs for a flush fit. A router and piloted flush-trim bit make
this process quick and easy (see Photo 7).

There you have it: a traditional cabinet detail made with the convenience of modern
jig joinery.

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