Which kreg screw for pine

This coming from someone with limited pocket screw use, so take for what it's worth. Maybe do a test "drive". Messages 18, Location Delton, Michigan. Al killian Member. Messages 1, Location Floydada, Tx. For poplar, I use the course screws. It is a hard would, but is way soft so coarse are fine. Barry Richardson Member. Messages Location Goodyear AZ.

My expeirence is 'when in doubt, use coarse'. The fine threads strip out too easily in softer hardwoods, like alder, poplar, etc. On the other hand, we ran out of fine thread at the shop a while back and have been using coarse for oak assemblies and it works just fine.

So well, in fact, that we stopped bothering to keep the fine thread on hand. The next question to ask yourself is: What kind of wood you are using to build your project? Softwood, hardwood, or plywood? When you know that, you can choose the correct screw thread type — either coarse or fine thread. Woods like pine and spruce, for example known as softwoods , are soft and not very dense.

That means they need a screw with deep, aggressive threads that will bite into those soft fibers. Coarse-thread Kreg Pocket-Hole Screws work great for these woods.

Coarse-thread screws are also the preferred choice for sheet goods like plywood and MDF. On the other hand, hardwoods like oak, maple, and cherry are too dense and hard for coarse-thread screws. The aggressive threads tend to tear the wood fibers, resulting in splits in your wood.

For these hardwoods, choose fine-thread Kreg Screws. The threads are less aggressive, but there are more of them to ensure great holding power without splitting. You clamp it to you stock instead of putting the stock in the jig. Also, one other thought is that pine is a soft wood and are you using coarse threaded screws or fine threaded screws.

Coarse is for soft wood and MDF. This may or may not be the answer to your question, but I thought I'd give it a shot. You can find the video on this site and its the one about repairs.

I have never had any real problem joining pine with pocket screws. Occasionally a hole might strip out if the screw is over driven or the screw will very infrequently break for the same reason. More often the screw will compress the bottom of the countersink and expose the point due to over penetration. Taking care not to overdrive the screws makes joining SYP more or less trouble free in my experience.

Now, with oak the broken screws are a little more frequent but the other two problems which I have with pine do not happen and that can be prevented in the same way. Still if you are using the right settings, the right screws and not over driving the screws you may have to use an alternative method of joining that particular bit of lumber.

I have used some very old pine boards recycled from the interior walls of an old house that was so dry and brittle that trying to use pocket hole joints would probably have caused problems similar to what you are having. In that case self penetrating fasteners such as nails or screws without pre drilled pilot holes should be avoided. Thanks everyone. I think that overtightening is my problem. I've backed off and am getting better results.

I'm not sure about using the spacer, I haven't experimented with that yet. Perhaps like some of you, this economy has been devastating to my wife and I. We are trying to do thousands of dollars worth of work for hundreds of dollars and have hopes of gaining the skills necessary to remodel our kitchen without professionally made cabinets. I'm a 57 year old former corporate controller and tasks that require attention to detail and lots of concentration very much appeal to me.

Cabinet making is at least as difficult as being an accountant and those who have mastered the skills neccessary have my admiration. I wish I had started this 20 years ago. Thanks again. I use a cordless DeWalt and set the clutch to number two and it works perfcto all the time,You have been over torquing the screws Good luck and happy building. I have built many cabinets using pocket hole joints to assemble cabinets and face frames using pine. My current project, consists of 36 cabinets, upper and lower.

Also, with fine thread screws, there are more chances of galling since there are more rotations and they may just slide against the friction. So, to answer this question — these fine threaded screws can still be used almost anywhere you want but for best results, as we saw earlier, they should be used with harder and more dense wood surfaces.

So, harder and denser the material finer shall be the threading of the screw for best fastening and clamping results. Having said that, is fine thread screw better in terms of holding capacity than the coarse thread screw? Let us find out. This is one of the most asked questions and is a legitimate one.

Though fine thread screws have a larger tensile strength and higher stress area that makes them good with hardwood surfaces, the coarse thread screws are more preferred due to their greater overall resistance to stripping and cross-threading. So for all major applications, the coarse thread screws have certain advantages to fine thread screws due to the following characteristics:. So to answer the question — Yes Coarse thread screws hold better due to all the characteristics that we discussed and provided that the wood type that is used is softwood and not the harder wood types.

But does that make the fine thread screws any less — No, the fine thread screws too find their appropriate usage and applications in wood types they are suitable for. Use this piece to find out which screw type to use and when. Keep it as a ready reference for all the questions that you may have in your mind and more. Hi Russ, that was a mistake, I fixed it. Coarse thread screws work best in softwood. I always try to drill a pilot hole especially on the hardwood before driving in the screws.

This will prevent the wood from cracking and the screw from breaking off. The material is radiata pine, 18mm thick. The joins feel pretty flimsy with the coarse threads. Hi Jon, I would use coarse-thread screws on radiata pine because it is still considered softwood. You could purchase a small amount of fine thread screws and test it out. But from my experience course thread screws are the best for pine wood.

I use fine thread pocket hole screws exclusively from Pine all the way up to Ironwood. I find that the fine threads hold better and almost never strip out in Pine.