Ok, so I decided to make my sweetie a nice oak bed (I snore something awful). Almost done; the last little bit was to cut mortises and mount the bed rail hardware
As I see it, I have (at least) two problems: First, if I want to salvage the almost-completed side rail, I need to somehow extract about an inch of wood screw that is buried a good 3/8 of an inch inside a chunk of oak, preferably without doing so much damage that I can't re- use the hole. I suppose I could just lengthen the mortise and reposition the hardware, but I'm not real keen on that (fortunately, I made the side rails an inch wider than the plans called for, so I have some room to play with on the end of the rail. Any suggestions?
The second problem is what is stopping me right now: Any advice on how do drive screws in oak without shearing them? I figured a full length pilot hole in end grain, with the screw threads heavily waxed, would not present so much friction that a #8 screw would shear, but apparently it does. So far, I've sheared about 8 screws this afternoon, two in ind grain and the rest in side grain, using both Crown Bolt screws from HD and Hillcrest screws from my local lumberyard, all in pilot holes drilled the length of the screw.
I appeal to the assembled wisdom of the group to help an admitted idiot out of an embarassing jam (though not as embarassing as having the bed fall apart would be). Thanks
Jim