I've finally treated myself to 14.4v combi drill from Aldi's.
Now what I'd like is a nice selection of suitably sized screws both for metal and for wood.
I don't want a 100 of this or 100 of that, just a nice variety. Happy to buy a specific set if I have a specific project but that's all I seem to be able to find on the regular websites.
Any pointers please?
AnthonyL pretended :
Long ago, on a distant galaxy - I wanted to build up a bit of a stock of odd sizes of nuts and bolts, so I asked a local stockist who sold by weight, what happened to all the bits they dropped on the floor. They said they were not worth sorting back to their bins, so they just threw them in an oddments bin. I offered to buy some of their oddments, but they said help yourself to as many as I wanted.
A search on eBay for "wood screw assortment" is enlightening.
Toolsatan used to sell a silverline self-tapper assortment box of 130, but it seems they now only do much larger assortments of 750
The smaller packs are available elsewhere, e.g.
The larger one is only better vfm if you're going to actually use that many ...
Since it's not urgent, keep an eye on Lidl and Aldi offers. Assorted screws in a fairly nice segmented box come up from time to time.
Toolstation do a variety of screw packs that might be the kind of thing you had in mind. E.g :
(search for "screw pack" to find others)
But isn't the drawback that if you need one screw of a certain size you need several, and the mixed pack doesn't quite have enough, and even if it does how do you restock it economically?
Decide on about ten sizes that span the range. Go to a specialised fixings outlet and price up boxes of 100 or 200 of each. You might be surprised how cheap those places can be. Not eBay though: the quality is likely to be poor.
Bill
Screwfix do assorted packs of wood screws from around £20 but I usually just buy the size of screw that I need for a job in 100s or 200s from Wickes - often there's a free driver bit in the box, which of course fits really well. I don't use many self-tappers (more likely to pop-rivet or weld). I usually have a few in my general box of junk, which I've salvaged from discarded items when I could be bothered.
Handy if they happen to be just around the corner from where you live or work. Which they are in my case.
Toolsatan is cheapest, silver or plasterboard screws
NT
I've used these people several times.
Trust me Murphy's law is often at play. You would need just that screw length you may not find in your pile!!
Flashy wheels on that K reg Transit van !
+1, also as someone else said keep an eye on Aldi/Lidl
I throughly recommend a couple of boxes of self drilling hex head screws. Very sharp, they'll drill through sheet steel and hold fast. Any place that sells roofing will have a wide range.
I never seem to be able to find those in the exact size I want. ;-)
If you find that a (for instance) 2" No8 CS woodscrew is just a bit too long and pokes right through the wood, but a 1½" screw isn't long enough, and you don't have any 1¾", put a 2" screw in far enough for it just not quite poke through, then take it out and cut the end off with the Dremmel, then put it back in. Or if appearance doesn't matter put a
2" screw in and Dremmel the end off where it pokes through.Bill
Yes, I've done this a lot. Run in the screw then, after shortening it, back-spin a bit to pick up the same thread. Another use is where there's limited depth and the taper is a waste of space as it doesn't hold in a pilot hole. Forming the thread then cutting of the taper gives full-depth engagement (oo-er missus!).
You can pick some up for me then :) 'cause none of them are really handy to me :(
Sounds a good plan. The box of 700+ from Toolstation would be ideal - if they were all assorted.
And as several have suggested, I'll probably need to buy a specific size if a serious project arises.
I have from donkey's years ago a nice selection of wood screws, slotted.
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