Wood screws or screws with metal insert?

[OneMoreFarang]

I bought a bathroom cabinet with optional "legs".

The legs came together with screws for wood and in the bas of the cabinet are little holes.

In general, I am not a fan of little screws for wood because it's easy to fasten them too much.

I like the idea of metal sleeves and screws. They are easy to remove and insert again.

Are there any disadvantages from those metal sleeves?

What would you use to mount those legs? 

 

Here are pictures of the predrilled holes in the cabinet, the screws which are supplied, and the metal sleeves and screws which I consider.

 

 

 

 

 

[Denim]

The bolts would , as you say , probably be better , but are the pre drilled holes big enough for the sleeves ? If not you need to drill out the holes and make them bigger before gluing in the sleeves.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

3 minutes ago, Denim said:

The bolts would , as you say , probably be better , but are the pre drilled holes big enough for the sleeves ? If not you need to drill out the holes and make them bigger before gluing in the sleeves.

 

 

Thanks. 

For the sleeves the holes much be obviously bigger. I have a drill, no problem.

 

You write: "gluing in the sleeves"

Is that necessary and/or common? I used the sleeves before on a little unimportant project and I just put them in a tight-fitting hole and all worked fine.

 

 

[Denim]

44 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks. 

For the sleeves the holes much be obviously bigger. I have a drill, no problem.

 

You write: "gluing in the sleeves"

Is that necessary and/or common? I used the sleeves before on a little unimportant project and I just put them in a tight-fitting hole and all worked fine.

 

 

Yup, cant beat a tight hole. The sleeves have ridges which should grip well enough and unless you are disassembling the cabinet glue might be overkill. Just that I have some wood glue and although might not be necessary a dab or two certainly shouldn't hurt.

[sometimewoodworker]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Here are pictures of the predrilled holes in the cabinet, the screws which are supplied, and the metal sleeves and screws which I consider.

Either proper screws (not the pot metal junk supplied, though actually they are not bad quality but the thread is wrong for the plywood/compressed cardboard) or proper inserts (not the press fit ones you have, they are designed for dense wood) like these

 

don’t use an Allen key to insert them, use a bolt with 2 nuts you can lock together 

 

Hear is an example of what you have and what you actually need

 

the fine pitch is for dense wood like the denser hardwood found here along with species like Yew. For softer wood and composite like rubber wood, plywood and chipboard, to name a few, you want the course thread.

[degrub]

Is the base wood board, Medium Density Fiberboard, or plywood ?
Are the legs on a steel plate that these screws are anchoring  to the base ?
 

you really want a drill press to screw in the nut insert in the picture above using the double nutted bolt or all thread method. Even using a hand power drill will work, but is easy to get off line and tilt the nut insert or tear out the MDF.  Just go very slow on rotation while pressing firmly into the MDF.

 

I’ve seen many using the screws you were provided. They work as long as the cabinet does not get shifted around much as they will tear out after a while. 
 

the insert in your picture has no pull out resistance to speak of and really isn’t suitable.  The threaded nut inserts do a much better job of it.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks. 

For the sleeves the holes much be obviously bigger. I have a drill, no problem.

 

You write: "gluing in the sleeves"

Is that necessary and/or common? I used the sleeves before on a little unimportant project and I just put them in a tight-fitting hole and all worked fine.

 

 

I fail to see what difference it makes. I presume the cabinet is made of "manufactured wood" which means it's rubbish anyway. The suggestion to glue them is because they could just pull out anyway, if the hole you drill is slightly too big.

Just don't be too heavy handed when screwing, and if you do overtighten just remove screw, stick a couple bits of a wood toothpick in the hole and rescrew a bit more lightly.

 

If you absolutely have to make it as strong as possible, can you put a machine screw all the way through and put a nut and washer on the inside of the cabinet?

 

Here's a hint when drilling that rubbish so called wood. Always likely to go too far and drill right through a panel, so hold a piece of flat wood on the back when drilling, and if you do go through it doesn't knock a big bit of the material off as well.

 

I hate that stuff, but the real thing is just too expensive for ordinary projects.

[OneMoreFarang]

Thanks, I have the inserts with the thread as well. 

So I will use them.

I don't know what material the "wood" is. It's a cabinet from bathroom Kohler.

The legs have a thick aluminium base.

The hex bit seems to fit perfectly. 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

On 12/1/2022 at 2:53 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks, I have the inserts with the thread as well. 

So I will use them.

I don't know what material the "wood" is. It's a cabinet from bathroom Kohler.

The legs have a thick aluminium base.

The hex bit seems to fit perfectly. 

 

Today I put above inserts in the cabinet, and I used some wood glue for them.

As far as I see that was a good idea. Now I can easily attach the legs with machine screws and if I like remove them again and attach them again without worrying about the connection.

 

Thanks for all your information. 

[KannikaP]

On 12/1/2022 at 7:50 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

What would you use to mount those legs? 

Let's have a photo then I'll tell you..  55

[OneMoreFarang]

3 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Let's have a photo then I'll tell you..  55

Something for your imagination with mounting legs and all that. ????