Home Depot 1/4" Lag Screw

I tightened up a 1/4" lag screw that I bought from Home Depot earlier this evening. It was screwed into 1.5" fir after pre-drilling with a 1/8" pilot hole.

After it bottomed out, I turned it just a little bit more, holding a 3/8" ratchet handle close to the shaft, not out on the handle. I wasn't giving it much torque, just making sure that it was secure, when it turned to butter.

It was less torque tha I have used in the past to tighten drywall screws.

Here is the result:

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On the plus side, it was really easy to drill a little hole in the piece that is still left in the wood (the hole is for the EZ out).

I'm actually glad that this came apart on me; at least I know to get some halfway decent ones now before something failed with more catastrophic results.

Be careful what you build with the fasteners you buy from the bulk bin at Home Depot.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken
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Even better, don't buy fasteners at Home Depot. If you want quality, go to an industrial supply house or order from McFeelys.com

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I'm pretty sure that all of the standard fasteners at HD are made of quite soft metal. I have run into the same problem using lag screws on deck framing. If they get a little warm from friction, the heads twist right off. HD have some hardened bolts, but they are as expensive as if you had bought them at Fastenal. I agree that HD is not the place to buy fasteners - aside from the fact that HD charges quite a lot for their fasteners.

Reply to
Andrew

And their "bin" machine screws are Grade 2 not Grade 5... who uses Grade 2 for anything?

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Around here, Tractor Supply has pretty good fasteners, including grade 8 if your function calls for that. Farmers don't like to do the same repair job twice, I guess.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

BTW: Using a drill gauge for sizing! We use a card with various holes in it, originally designed we think for sizing knitting needles? But the holes are marked in metric on one side and on the other in

64ths, 32nds etc. Very useful.
Reply to
terry

And what diameter would that be, since lags are tapered? And if there were such a diameter, you would mean "root diameter" or minor diameter -- right?

But that's ok.... I'm sure the concept of conventional vs climb cutting is going to take another few weeks to properly gel in your brain -- all this other stuff will come in due time. Heh, mebbe you can study with yer buddee RicodJour.

Altho ahm no 'spert on wood, I doubt that the pilot hole should be exactly a root diameter (if there were one) for wood. After all, yer not tapping the wood like metal. Mebbe there is a woodworker's equiv to Machinery's Handbook that has this spec -- heh, mebbe even Machinery's handbook has it!

I'm sure there has to be some compression of the wood fibre, for adequate strength, when drilling pilots. 1/8" actually sounds about right.

Reply to
Existential Angst

I've found it's worth checking them rather than blindly picking them up - I've seen screws from different places that are listed as the same thing, but sometimes they have narrower shafts and are prone to shearing. Thankfully my local farm supply place seems to be consistently good...

Reply to
Jules

Without having them tested how would you know? You are pretty much guaranteed that the fasteners you can buy there are the lowest quality they you can possibly buy.

You can get much better quality (and actually pay less) at industrial supply houses.

Reply to
George

No, an 1/8" is actually too small for a 1/4" (size 14) screw:

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Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Which is the mantra of all predatory organizations. Even the parking at HD is ill-thought out.

Reply to
Existential Angst

Okay, then it's not just me that has that problem with lag bolts from Home Depot. I've become anal about drilling pilot holes that are long enough and large enough diameter to deal with these crappy lag bolts.

Where can you buy good quality lag bolts though?

Reply to
SMS

McFeeley's is good.

Reply to
keithw86

Got an actual hardware store in your town?

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

You are right -- they are not tapered. Heh, you just may grasp climb cutting sooner than I predicted!

The root diameter on a 1/4" lag is almost exactly 3/16. A 1/8" pilot would cause about 1/32" (.032) compression, "on the radius" -- which, if too much, is a whole lot better than *no pilot*, which is what proly 95% of people do.

Proly the pilot size would depend on the wood and on the grain orientation, as well. But as I think about it, and look at a lag bolt, mebbe a pilot closer to

3/16 than 1/8 IS appropriate, esp. for long lag bolts. Mebbe 11/64.
Reply to
Existential Angst

I first twisted off lag screws starting in 1979. Lag screws in general are not strong unless you get stainless steel.

IIRC I try to give to lag screws a polit hole size the size of the body or a bit larger.

Even a "hardened" square drive #14 screw which is .246" thread diameter requires a larger 5/32" pilot hole in soft woods.

Additionally you do not want to bottom out a lag screw, the point on the end helps guide not pull the screw into the wood.

Reply to
Leon

Proly not.

Reply to
Existential Angst

[... and, unsurprisingly, the head twisted off]

This isn't exactly news to anyone who's been involved in home repair for any length of time, you know.

You can get fasteners of significantly better quality, at a lower price, from any real hardware store. The category of real hardware stores includes:

- Ace

- Tru-Value

- Do-it-Best

- any hardware store with worn wooden floors and a little bell on the front door that tinkles when you walk in, where any employees under the age of forty are the owner's grandchildren; sadly, these places are getting harder and harder to find.

This category does *not* include

- Home Depot

- Lowe's

- Menards

- Hechinger's and similar places.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Pilot hole should be 3/16"

Regards,

Tom Watson

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Reply to
Tom Watson

I have never seen a tapered lag screw unless it was "very" short, and the diameter you are looking for is the "body" diameter as described by McFeeleys screw sizing chart.

Actually you do want the pilot hole the same size as the body diameter.

You only want the threads cutting into the wood, 1/8" is too small.

Reply to
Leon

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