I'm making a coffee table out of used bowling alley lanes for the first time and what I'm doing seems like it should be simple - I am trying to drill screws into the underside to attach horizontal bars for stability. The screws are about 1.5" (so pretty short I think?) but my attempts have just ended up with a drillbit breaking in the hole.
After using a 9.5V cordless black and decker drill first to try to drill a pilot hole, then screw the screw directly in (it would stop with about 1/4" left on the outside), I got a 12V cordless drill. I tried drilling the screw directly in and again it stopped with about 1/4" left on the outside. I then tried drilling a pilot hole with a slightly bigger drill bit and the drill bit got stuck! I tried using the drill over and over but each time it would end up with the drill bit staying stuck in the hole as I pulled up on the drill. Pliers didn't work either. Finally I tried moving the bit around a bit and, of course, the bit broke in the hole!
I am going to try a slightly thinner, and less long, screw, but as far as learning goes I'm not satisfied. There MUST be a way to screw 1.5" screws into pine. The internet has told me that cordless drills are just as good as corded drills for intense projects, so certainly it shouldn't be the cordless drill that's the problem here??
I'm sooo close to being done my table! Very frustrated to get hung up so close to the end. Any suggestions?
Well, several things going on here. Yellow pine is hard for pine, but still not as hard as oak or others. Try to make sure the pilot you are drilling is as deep as the screw is long. When you drill holes, drill in some and then pull out to allow the hole to clear of debris, then drill some more. If you don't, the bit gets tighter as you drill deeper. Eventually the bit got so tight that the chuck was slipping. Sometimes with cordless drills it is hard to get the bit tight enough. For pine I will pick a pilot bit that is a bit smaller than the shank of the screw. For oak and other hard woods I will use a bit that is about the same size as the shank of the screw. A trick for getting screws to go in easier is to use a bar of soap and rub the screw on the soap. What screws are you using?
Yes. Think about drywall work. I cant set 2" screws a thousand at a time into pine without pre-drilling. I bet you're going into maple, not pine. You did say you were a newb. Easy mistake. So then…. I would undersize your drill bit by around 10% of the screw diameter, but no more, maybe even a bit less. Maple is very hard. If you are using heavy duty screws and not cheapo ones you should be fine with what I said to do. But, if you are using screws like drywall screws, they are going to snap every time in maple. Lastly, when drilling holes dont go full bore and depth all at once. Pull it out a few times to clear the dust. Otherwise it will make your bit get stuck, especially if you are using an underpowered drill.
I think Luthierman has the right of it. It's probably maple, not pine. As he suggested, try lubricating the screws with soap or wax. Cordless drills will work fine, if you follow all the tips above.
Never heard of a bowling lane made of pine. Not even heart pine.
They are either Maple or Beech.. . and hard as hell. . . and as said above, put together with nails.
All the above advice is spot on as for drilling and lubricating the screws.
I would only add a couple things. Smaller drill bit, the higher the speed you must use to avoid breaking the bit.
Use a good quality high speed steel or cobalt steel drill bit.
If you must get your screws from a box store don't use the un-branded screws; they are made from recycled garbage steel. I have had pretty good luck with Spax brand screws.
In the future it's better to buy screws from someone like McFeely's with square drive heads. Better quality and better price as well.
As firefighter says, keep your drill clean. Those little twist drills fill up with debris very quickly. You probably need to pull it out and clean it at least 4 or 5 times for an 1 1/2" hole.
Never heard of a bowling lane made of pine. Not even heart pine.
They are either Maple or Beech.. . and hard as hell. . . and as said above, put together with nails.
- crank49
Yeah many of them are just SYP. The bowling alley my son works at have all pine lanes with the exception of the first part where the ball hits that is maple.
I made my workbench out of a piece of pine bowling lane.
My son said they impregnate the pine with something that makes it harder.
I made my kitchen island top and my workbench out of bowling lane. They are indeed yellow pine. I missed getting the sections that were the first 10'. Those were maple. I guess there's no need for maple past the distance that someone is going to throw the ball. The finish on it was about 1/8" thick.
Practice drilling on a scrap piece to see if it will go.. Also don't know if you are using sheet rock screws or not…. They are pretty weak..
Really sounds like you are hitting metal…
the age of the bowling lanes is also a big part of what it's made of. I've worked at a couple up here in the north and one was made of pine (it was an old bowling alley) and another was made from some hard maple and some rock maple.
You might try deck screws with a Torx slotted head. Then you don't have to worry about camming out of the phillips slot. Square drives are second best.
Looks like you have a lot of suggestions already, but i would add that you might find driving screws to be much easier with an 18v impact driver. Assuming your "drill" is not already one of these. As a charged battery on a standard cordless drill, proper pilot hole and proper screws should get you the desired results, impact drivers are very helpful in driving screws. Maby your drill just doesn't have enough juice to really send it home.
If you have not used an impact driver yet, I think you would be pleasantly surprised with this tools abilities. In certain circumstances an impact driver paired with star drive screws can literally be as easy as pressing a button. I can recall being in the tightest of spaces, in the most awkward positions and being able to drive 3' screws with ease (being the youngest guy on a crew doing remodels will often times land you in these types of scenarios). All of this however will be useless, should you be hitting nails as mentioned earlier. Anyway, should you pick one of these up, even a lower priced Ryobi or kobalt or whatever will get you a good enough impact driver that may serve you well.
Thanks everyone! I finally had some time after work to implement this. I was SUPER HOPING it was a nail but it ended up that wasn't it. I chose two new sites and in each of these I could get the drill bit in for the pilot hole quite cleanly, all the way in, but then the screws would go in to about 1" and not make it further in. Oil did help get it in further but not all the way. I bet if I used a different kind of lubricant it would help?
But I then tried my structural screws that I got for the legs and those did go in with NO pilot hole. So I am giving up on my cheap screws (as some of you mentioned here) and I'm going to use the structural screws on the horizontal bars too. I got a pack of 50 anyway so I might as well find a use for them.
My only frustration was that in using the structural screws to put in the legs, I managed to crack one of the "seams" on the edge of the table. It didn't crack too far, and given that I am a newbie I'm pretty proud of how far I got. I assumed I was going to end up throwing out the entire piece of wood. A crack seems like hardly a big deal to worry about. I did use wood glue on the under side though, and I plan to buy clear wood glue to use on top (suggestions welcome), just so that it doesn't crack more. If anyone asks I'm going to say "well it's a refurbished bowling alley!! The cracks cost more".
Here's a picture of it almost done (still have to do those horizontal bars and buy some clear wood glue)!! Once I finish it I'm going to do an entire blogpost about it and what I learned along the way.
Here's a photo
(I couldn't get the photo upload to work)
Oh and thank you for all the specific advice too. I can't figure out how to reply to specific posts.
You're probably all right that at least if it is pine it's some sort of hard pine. If I remember correctly when I bought it the first part of the lane was maple (as someone indicated) but it was more expensive, so I bought the cheaper one.
There are no arrows on it already but I stained arrows onto it! Which I love
Someone talked about getting an impact drill. I'm not going to do it this time because I'm trying to finish this up without spending too much more but this whole thread has made me realize I need to learn about the different kinds of drills, when to use them and why, AND the different kinds of screws! The screw suggestions were great but I didn't even realize that different screw heads mattered.
The pilot hole definitely is as big as the screw… but I'm going to give one more shot this morning lubricating the screw. I just found some wax in my house instead of the cooking oil I was using! I also realized that these specific screws don't have to be that long though, so even before trying the structural screws I'm just going to go buy some shorter screws. These screws are just holding horizontal bars in place - they aren't doing anything structural or attaching something that will be moved in any way.
Most cordless drills have a torque setting. Are you using that feature? I never use the feature. Just leave my drills set on the drilling setting so it never slips.
Get a tungsten tipped drill,. Preferably with a small spur to prevent initial wandering and don't push too hard, Sort of firm but fair. Keep the drill straight and slow down a bit brother constant but definite pressure .Alistair
Well it worked! More or less. A combination of beeswax, using high torque but a slow speed on the screw and making sure I drilled very far down and cleared the drillbit every once in a while when making the pilot hole. The very side piece of wood was super hard and some of the screws aren't all the way down, but for someone who's never made anything before I'm ok with it! In the future I think I'd use a flatter head screw.
I am wondering if the crack is an issue but I will post a different thread about that.
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