Been seeing a lot of guys skip the pilot hole on hardwood lately

I watched a guy last week try to drive a 3 inch screw straight into white oak at the job site, snapped it clean off on the third turn. You'd think people would learn after the first one breaks, but I guess instant gratification beats doing it right these days. Anybody else notice more rookies skipping the basics?

3 comments

3 Comments

lindag331mo ago

Grace nailed it about drilling out snapped screws taking forever. I learned that the hard way myself - now I'm the queen of pilot holes after spending a whole Sunday trying to get a broken screw out of some pine. Must've said "this time for real" about fifteen times before I finally gave up and got out the drill.

gracec161mo ago

Got a buddy who spent two hours on a Saturday drilling out a snapped screw from some maple. He was using deck screws too, not even the right kind for hardwood. Told me after that he'll never skip the pilot hole again.

vera_robinson361mo ago

That reminds me of my neighbor Jerry who spent a whole Sunday rebuilding a deck gate because he used galvanized nails instead of stainless steel screws. He said the same thing about learning the hard way. It seems like every project I see people skip the small steps that make the difference between a job that lasts and one that falls apart. We always want to save ten minutes now but end up losing hours later fixing the mistake. It's funny how that pattern shows up in so many things, from woodworking to cooking to fixing a leaky faucet.