what are the best screws for Melamine Board?

[bdeditch]

What are the best screws to use with Melamine Board, it seems that woodscrews strip out very quickly.

[dadiOH]

It (or any particle board) doesn't hold screws well.

[BobS]

Drill hole, insert glue and a piece of dowel - cut flush. Pre-drill dowel then when you put the screw in, it will have something better to grip. End grain is not the best but it beats particle board.

Bob S.

[Chris Friesen]

There are special particleboard screws. They have very thin sharp coarse threads that stick out more than normal from the shaft so that they grip as much material as possible while causing minimal disturbance.

Chris

[Ron Magen]

a} 'Thru-Bolt' with flat washers whenever possible b}Use use Stainless Steel or Brass 'Threaded Inserts' when you can't / won't / don't want to

Regards, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop

[Lew Hodgett]

You can't get there from here with wood screws IMHO.

There are some options as follows:

1) Use coarse thread sheet metal screws rather than wood screws.

2) Drill an oversize hole(1/2"), then glue in a 1/2" dowel. Drill pilot hole in dowel for screw.

3) Drill an oversize hole (1/2"), then fill with epoxy thickened with micro-balloons. When cured, drill pilot hole for sheet metal screw.

Option 3 is by far the most complex; however, it is also the strongest.

Lew

[Robatoy]

Compared to a pre-drilled and threaded solid block of maple?...I guess you're right.

But... I have driven ( and had driven for me) literally tens of thousands of low-root PB nub-head screws and seldom did I experience a failure in any of the assemblies.

What it comes down to, is to make sure that there is sufficient particle board to screw into and that the proper pre-drill/screw combo is used. If you screw a # 10 wood screw at 1/2" from the edge of a piece of 5/8 PB...of course it is going to fail.

So much of this is common sense.

Is it wood?

No.

...but I have been in some pretty spectacular houses which were nothing but concrete and steel. It's all what you do with the materials you select.

IOW... don't reject PB as a legit material, just because you don't understand its limitations.

Respectfully I remain,

r

[klaatu]

I use these.

[MJ]

Norm uses a special stepdrill and screws. I think McFeely's sells them. He's built several things with PB and this setup.

MJ Wallace

[Jesse]

I use conformat screws, work well.

[dadiOH]

I don't. I use it for all sorts of stuff. I even use screws in it...but mostly to hold it together while the glue dries :)

[parr6532]

I'm no pro at this, but I did use MB to make an L-shaped computer desk and support units w/shelving for my computer room last fall (it's still hangin' together). I had good luck using dadoes combined with those course deck screws you can get at Home Depot. Pre-drill the holes, of course, and be gentle when you drive the screws, don't run them in hard. (I faced the support units with white vinyl, but faced the table top with red-oak banding with an application of tung oil. It turned out purtee good, if I do say so myself.)

[bdeditch]

Well this I what I am doing as well. I am building Kitchen cabinets for my Daughter. I perfer to use a nice cabinet grade Plywood. But since she is paying for most of it, we went to the Melamine board route. I have been counter sinker, but it just seems that I have to go about a snails pace with the screw gun and be so darn careful when I get near the end.