Your Screwing Technique?

[The Brain]

katmai knows all about filler material.

[Ideologue]

I pay someone for these things.

That doesn't seem like you at all.

[crazy canuck]

Isnt having just one technique a bit boring?

[DontSayBanana]

Long and hard. OH!

[Monoriu]

I pay someone for these things.

That doesn't seem like you at all.

I suck at physical labour 

[Vricklund]

Yesterday I was taking apart one of the sheds, needed to recondition it, put new roofing-felt and found the 6-8 ft battens were secured by 8 or so 2" screws.

Damn what overkill for tiny pieces of wood, what's it going to be like taking the roof off, I thought; yet it transpired that was just held on by 6 screws fixed to a really weak central roof support, based on the above experience I'd have though the guy would have put literally dozens of screws in all over the place.

The other thing that puzzled me, was every screw was 'over-driven' into the wood by about 2-3mm, so the head was part buried by surrounding wood, is that a good idea, I'd have thought it would weaken the bond between the two pieces of timber.  What do you think?

So what's you policy on screw use when building something ? 

I can't help but thing the guy used a power tool and put so many screws in on the vissible outside of the shed and somewhat skimpt on the interior , because it looked like he was doing a lot of work to impress the customer. 

Personally, I'm less keen on screwing and more likely to hammer away at nailing things.   

Determined not to let my degree in mechanical engineering go completely to waste...

The purpose of a screw is not to take the force exerted on the structure. The purpose is to join two parts of the structure together letting the friction between the two parts take the force. It relatively easy to pull a screw out by force compared to the force needed to sheer apart the two pieces that are joined.

By your description above I'm thinking the battens are somehow fastened by the screws alone, if it was fastened with only a few screws the forces upon the batten could rip the screw right out of the wood.

The fastening of the rafters to the beam on the other hand uses the second principle of friction. You only need a few screws to keep the pressure between two parts and friction will do the work.

Countersinking a screw will have no effect when the force is perpendicular to the axis of the screw and only possibly a minute effect when the force is along the axis of the screw.

[Eddie Teach]

Long and hard. OH!

Any other forum I've been to, there'd be 3 or 4 comments about how the thread title was misleading by now. On Languish we know better. 

[DontSayBanana]

Any other forum I've been to, there'd be 3 or 4 comments about how the thread title was misleading by now. On Languish we know better. 

Sure.  My options were 1) ignore it and make a serious response, or 2) take it and run.  I chose the path of most fun.

[katmai]

katmai knows all about filler material.

I do?

[DGuller]

katmai knows all about filler material.

[katmai]

katmai knows all about filler material.

[Eddie Teach]

You make reality tv, don't you? Whole episodes are filler.

[Ideologue]

I thought he meant cranially.

[fhdz]

I thought he meant cranially.

I thought he meant anally.

[DGuller]

I always think anally.