Toenailing thru pressure wood

Ok, just off the top of my head...get a better cordless drill.

I'm have troubling picturing any problem with what you are trying to do (since you didn't post a picture) but I can't think of a reason why you would be having trouble, other than a drill with not enough power.

(Just yesterday I watched a guy struggling to enlarge a 3/8" hole in a 3/8? steel plate with a HF cordless drill. He needed a half inch hole. Must have taken him 15 minutes and half a can of PB Blaster. Wrong tool and wrong lubricant. What can I say...)

Hi, I think your drill is not strong enough? It is one shot deal without pause once you start. I used quite an amount of PT planks for our front and rear deck at our cabin. . Make sure battery is fully charged. Zap, zap... screw goes down so effortlessly. When wood is very dry it needs more torque for sure. Make sure Robertson or Phillips bit is fresh one.

or use a corded drill with enough oomph.

th the process of sliding soap on the threads to make it easier to screw th em in. I get thru with the points showing through but having resistance whe n penetrating the side pressure wood that I want to connect them to. The co rdless drill just can't take it. I went as far as making a mark where it wo uld enter if there were no resistance, with a drill bit. That didn't work.. . cause now, the top part of the screw met resistance. Is there a way that I could get this done without any snags?

Can you tell me how one can tell if a cordless drill is not strong enough, other than a weak battery? BTW, this one takes the 18v lithium battery

Hi, Mine is DeWalt 18V one. Has torque adj. knob with lock position. Deck screws I used has blue-yellowish color.

You should drill wood with the proper size bit. Check this chart for one:

You may want to check this out:

There are tapered bits epecially for wood screws.

Sure. Your cordless drill is not strong enough if you can't toenail pressure treated wood.

I agree with Ralph Mowery on this one. If your cordless drill can't drive the screw in, then predrill a hole for the screw.

Choose your drill bit size according to the "root" diameter of the screw, which is the solid core of the screw. Doing that actually produces a better fastening because you get nearly the same holding power of the screw while putting substantially less splitting force in the wood. Any place that sells fasteners should be able to order X-tra long drill bits in the size you need.

Soap is something I used a lot more of when I didn't own a drill. Are you using your drill only to screw in the screws, or are you drilling a hole first, like you should?

I believe some people even drill small holes for nails.

Drill a small pilot hole

h the process of sliding soap on the threads to make it easier to screw the m in. I get thru with the points showing through but having resistance when penetrating the side pressure wood that I want to connect them to. The cor dless drill just can't take it. I went as far as making a mark where it wou ld enter if there were no resistance, with a drill bit. That didn't work... cause now, the top part of the screw met resistance. Is there a way that I could get this done without any snags?

Like I said in my OP i did get the screw through the bulk pw and a half in ch ot the screw is showing ...my problem is getting that part of the screw into the other pw. I predrilled a hole there and now its a matter of holdin g the wood which is awkward, to meet that pre-drilled hole . In the meantim e, the unthreaded part of the screw is not able to go through ..was I suppo se to 'soap' that part too?

I found your OP hard to understand. You don't have to reply, but I'll mark things in this post I find hard to understand.

bulk? pw?

after coming out the bottom or still showing because you can't get the screw in all the way?

Not sure why it should be awkward. Isn't the wood a whole board that will just lie there?

If the wood is that hard, drill one smaller hole that goes deep and a slightly bigger hole, probably only in the first piece of wood, to take the shank. Just drill as deep as the shank goes.

Someone mentioned tapered drill bits. With only a little time to look, I found

On 7/7/2014 8:31 AM, Anthony wrote: ...

While you don't say what the two pieces are, sounds like

a) you simply don't have enough torque in your driver, and

b) to compensate, you need to predrill a pilot hole for the shank in the first piece--a screw will not pull the piece tight to the second if the two aren't tightly together to begin with because the threads remain at the same relative spacing. Only the fortuitous case of stripping the threads in the top piece while the bottom ones hold will bring the two together when the head comes in contact; and that doesn't happen often enough to count on.

It's rare, however, with PT lumber it's hard enough to be a problem unless it's very old material in one or the other pieces--new stuff from the 'yard is generally full of water and quite soft.

Or, of course, just nail 'em instead...

OBTW, you don't mention the style of screw you're using -- that and what the actual work is could help to envision the problem.

A photo or two would make this whole thing a lot easier to understand, as I still can't figure out what your problem is escept for an underpowered drill.

Hi, My idea of using drill is to save time. If pilot holes have to be drilled for every screw to fasten, that defeats the purpose of using drill. What's the point of owning a tool which is not up to the task at hand? If it is for one time use, one can rent proper one at a small expense.

Good point, he must be using a defective drill, I only drill pilot holes to prevent the wood from cracking, I can certainly shoot a hole through just about anything.

Hi, Only time to use pilot hole is when doing finishing carpentry with exotic expensive wood..... Better be careful with them, LOL!

Most any wood can crack...so I generally use two drills if possible

And of course you should just use a drill with a cord. So much easier. You can buy a 100' extension cord for less than the price of a good cordless drill and the extension cord has lots of other uses too.

If you're putting in a deck or a floor, you don't need 100 feet. You can use almost anything.

If there is no power where you are, get somone to turn it on.

(I recently found a receptacle here, outside in a box, that must have been used during construction when there were no houses with outlets.)