Death Match: Maple vs. Everlast Wood Screws - Who will survive?

Maple's too hard not to pre-drill. In my opinion.

Tom

I needed to throw together a sliding table for my table saw to cut some circles from a 2 x 8. (Emergency garbage can repair - the plastic wheels cracked, so I made 2 wooden ones.)

I had a scrap of maple so I cut a runner and grabbed a package of borg-bought #6 x 5/8" wood screws that I had in a drawer. I was confident that I wouldn't split the runner with the small screws so I didn't pre-drill.

The first screw went through the plywood and snugged up nicely in the maple. The second one drove down to the head and then just spun. I had to pry it out because it just spun in both directions.

When I got it out, I found this:

It sure shows how crappy these screws are, seeing that a piece of maple was able to strip the threads completely off.

Still, any screw not made from Velvita should have broken, not lost its threads.

(The cross cut sleds I made this winter have expanded and don't fit right now. I didn't want to spend time (or rush) fixing them today, so I threw this one together just to get the wheels made.

If you could read Spanish, it says de Cabeza-- Only to be used in cabbage.

cutting circles on a table saw and making wheels for a trashcan

at least two points get added to your woodworking fu

the trashcan flap that swings to allow placing trash in it got lost so i made a new one from some redwood

well i had to add an accent of aromatic cedar along the peak