Attaching a Piece of Wood to another Piece of Wood using Screws

November 06, 2018, 03:01:33 am

Our Foretravels use a lot of screws in their assembly. Recently, I came across two examples that I think were not done in the right way. My understanding is that when you are using a screw to attach one piece of wood to another piece of wood, you drill the first one out to the shank size of the screw, and drill the second piece with the proper pilot hole size.

Here are my two recent examples:

1. The cabinet drawer fronts are attached by drilling the proper pilot hole into the back of the drawer front, and the shank-size hole all the way through the drawer "box" frame. I removed my pots and pan drawer front and discovered that the the holes through the drawer frame were drilled smaller and had to be screwed into both pieces, while held tightly together. IMHO, the frame holes should have been all the way through the frames, so the screws could be pushed though the frame and screwed into the drawer front. That way, the screw would pull the two wood pieces tightly together by only driving the screw into the drawer front, without having to drive the screw through both the frame and the drawer front.

2. The wood valences are attached by driving screws through the mounting block around the inside of the valence, into the cabinet bottom. Here again, FOT required the screw to be driven through both the mounting block *and* the cabinet bottom. This second set of screw threads requires the valence to be held in place tightly against the cabinet during the entire assembly. Otherwise, you would have a gap between the valence and the cabinet bottom. With the proper procedure (drilling a screw shank-size hole through the valence mounting block), you only have to hold it in position to start the screw into the cabinet bottom and let the screw pull the two pieces of wood together.

When I replaced the drawer front, I did enlarge the holes through the cabinet drawer frame. I then attached the drawer front by pushing the screws through the cabinet drawer frame and driving the screws into the drawer front. IMHO, the reassembly procedure was much easier than FOT used during initial assembly.

Is there any reason not to enlarge the holes in my valence mounting blocks prior to reassembling the valences? That is the way I was taught to attach two pieces of wood. Any ideas about why FOT did not follow the "correct" procedure during initial assembly?

BTW, a couple of years ago I started a thread on attaching my new Automotion shades (similar to MCD, but built by a Canadian company for more than thirty years) in my Foretravel. One of the suggestions I got was from Roger. He suggested that I add a piece of wood between the cabinet floor and the cabinet bottom, to provide more holding power than afforded by the thin cabinet bottom. That seemed like too much trouble and so I just screwed into the thin bottom veneer. That worked fine until I drove on I-10 between LA and TX. One of the bedroom valences fell at that time. Since then, that one fell again, and so did the other side in the bedroom. I NOW have the extra lumber installed in all the upper cabinets that have valences. Thank you, Roger; you did tell me so.

Removing the false bottoms and adding wood to cover the valence screw locations is a lot of work. And many of you are probably driving your Fortravels fat, dumb, and happy (a little self-reflection there). But if you need to add roller shades, which also mount to that thin cabinet bottom, please take the time to add the wood mounting blocks that FOT should have done eighteen years ago. If you don't believe Roger, then take my word for it; I am a convert.

Hope this helps someone else along the way. Please let me know if you have an opinion, one way or the other, on proper predrilling of the valence, please let me know yesterday, if not sooner.

Thank you,

Trent

Re: Attaching a Piece of Wood to another Piece of Wood using Screws

Reply #1 – November 06, 2018, 07:38:28 am

"Is there any reason not to enlarge the holes in my valence mounting blocks prior to reassembling the valences? That is the way I was taught to attach two pieces of wood. Any ideas about why FOT did not follow the "correct" procedure during initial assembly?"

FT used Kreg style 1-1/4" screws to hold up the valences. These are self drilling screws that have a cutting point on the point. If I were doing it originally I probably would have drilled clearance holes as Trent suggests. After just taking them all down and replacing them having the screws hold a bit in the wood made them much easier to replace with the screws in place. Trying to hold the valence up, balance a screw on the end of a 6" square drive bit, and hit a hole that you probably can't see would have been tough.

FT used at least 4 different types of screws to assemble and mount the window trim. I was switching back and forth between phillips and square drive all the time.

I used 1/2 in deep thread #8 screws to hold the shade brackets onto the (almost) 1/4" plywood bottoms of the cabinets. The deep thread screws have a thinner central core and thus deeper coarse threads. I will see if that is enough. Removing the bottom insides of the cabinets is time consuming. If you have to you can try just doing the front edge and pry it uo enough to slip in some 1/4" or 3/8" blocks of baltic birch plywood as backers. They don't need to be full length, maybe 1"x3". There are usually wires in that interstitial space. I would put a dab of trim glue (tacky, grabs fast) on them and put them in place. Exactly where is not critical. Put the brackets where the blocks are.

Re: Attaching a Piece of Wood to another Piece of Wood using Screws

Reply #2 – November 06, 2018, 10:23:37 am

Quote from: Roger & Susan in Home2 – November 06, 2018, 07:38:28 am

After just taking them all down and replacing them having the screws hold a bit in the wood made them much easier to replace with the screws in place. Trying to hold the valence up, balance a screw on the end of a 6" square drive bit, and hit a hole that you probably can't see would have been tough.

Your point is very valid about the placing the screws back without being held by threads in the valence mounting block. This is true with the bedroom valences, which do have a wider/deeper footprint than the other valences. It is worse on the front valences, which have much less depth to find and install the screws. In fact, I think I am going to have to notch out the mounting block to allow room for the roller shade mounting clips locations.

Trent

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