Drill bits and pilot holes

[Mike S.]

I need to drill pilot holes for curtain holdbacks. I don't recall what size it says to use (3/32 maybe), but what kind of drill bit should I buy for this project? Some of the bits are labeled as split point and some say pilot point. I know nothing about drills.

How far do I drill into the wall? The instructions aren't all that great and I don't have them right now. I think it said to just drill pilot holes using a 3/32 drill bit (I think). Also, what if the hole isn't in a stud, will it matter? The holdbacks come with little plastic things that look like cones.

[buffalobill]

for a screw into wood, the pilot hole may be the thickness of the body of the screw, leaving the threads to bite into the wood. this helps reduce splitting the wood or damaging the screw. when held up to the light, the drill bit should cover the screw body but not its threads. the inexpensive plastic things are anchors: if you use them in a drywall/plasterboard wall you will drill a hole their thickness so they slide snugly into the wall hole, where your screw thru the item will spread the anchor tightly against the wall opening you drilled. my favorite: start off with a 2-1/2" coated deck screw to hang your item, hole diameter permitting. if you hit the wooden wall stud, use it. if you hit air: use a self tapping threaded metal wall anchor with its matching screw. you will be happier with its better support in drywall than with the small plastic anchors.

[Jim Yanik]

"Mike S." wrote in news: [e-mail]:

for drilling into plasterboard(walls),it doesn't matter which type of bit. a pilot point would be better for drilling metal or wood,but would also work for plasterboard.(it's very soft)

The plastic cones are wall anchors that expand when the screw is driven into them,to hold in wallboard better. You want a bit size that is just a hair smaller than the diameter of the plastic insert. Screws dont hold well alone in plasterboard.

some plastic wall anchors just hammer in,or screw in.

[Mike S.]

The instructions say to mark the holes, drill 3/16 in pilot holes when using anchors, and fasten to wall.

So, if there's a stud, do I need to drill a pilot hole? Or do I drill a smaller hole and not use the anchor? If I don't use the anchor, how do I determine what size hole to drill?

[allan]

I have found that on some projects the normal bolts do not work, on my son's house I used these new self screwing that looked like very aggresive threads, it looked like the front of a drilling machine used to tunnel, I have used these with great success.

[Bert Byfield]

They're marked "self-starting" in the fine print. I love those things. You just push them at the target with the drill and they go in like zipping up a zipper.