Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cheese head screws - literally !

Broken screwsWhy do I do it ? From past experience I know that the screws that come in the packets with hinges and any other fixing are made of cheese. As soon as you try to screw them in, they break. Not straight away of course, no, you get then in up to the shank and then they break off.

Which is what happened when I tried to fit the hinges to my toolbox. And before you say it, yes I did make a pilot hole with a bradawl. The wood they are going in to is (I think) maple and therefore a bit harder than the normal pine the manufacturer probably expects his screws to be in.

Worse, I actually remembered this in the shop and brought proper screws. Brass ones admittedly but something less cheesy than these. They are still in the bag along with my brains when I started work it appears.

Something tells me that these aren't coming out so I'll have to move the hinge over, something there isn't a whole lot of space for. The holes left in the lid won't be pretty but at least they won't be too obvious either. Except to my tutor who will doubtless spot them.

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