A furniture screw can refer to any type of screw (and sometimes nut) used on furniture. Different types of screws have different uses in furniture. [1]
According to a 1986 article in New York Times, screws on old furniture can be difficult to remove due to rust. [2]
Furniture screws come with many different types of screw heads. [3] In older times, screws with slotted heads were often used in furniture, but these types of screw heads are usually avoided in modern furniture in favor of more practical tool slots. [4] Popular options in the 2020s include Phillips, Torx and hex heads.[ citation needed ]
Wood screws are common in furniture in general, and for furniture uses they typically have diameters between 3.5 mm and 5 mm (#6/0.1380 in to #10/0.1900 in). [5]
A Chinese study published in 2019 which compared different types of screws used in medium density fiberboards (MDF) for furniture purposes found that the most important factor for how well a screw worked was the depth of the screw, and secondly the diameter of the hole. The screw type itself, however, had the least effect on the strength of the join. [6]
Some common types of specialty furniture screws and bolts, especially on seen ready-to-assemble furniture, are: [7]
Knock-down fasteners are a class of fasteners designed to allow for repeated assembly and disassembly. They are often used in flat pack furniture, which is typified by items such as book cases and wall units that come in a package of pre-cut and pre-drilled components ready to assemble by a novice. Knock-down fasteners can generally be assembled with a single driver, such as a hex key, which may be included in a hardware kit that comes with the product. They self-align when tightened, and allow for a secure connection without requiring drilling or gluing by the consumer.
One common type of knock-down fastener is the cam lock, used in butt joints. After two members are brought together, a cam lock in one member is twisted, locking onto a dowel extending from the second member, and securing the joint.
Specialist tools and jigs are often required for the repeatable installation of knock-down fasteners (but not for assembly of prefabricated flat-pack furniture), so they tend to be limited to those who are making mass-produced items. However, there are applications in which the hobbyist can benefit from the range of fasteners that are available. They are easier and require less skill to install than some of the other more traditional techniques.
Knock-down fasteners are typically used for carcase joinery; furniture designs using them are usually of frameless construction.
Used for:
Wide application in cabinet making depending on type of fastener: particularly in carcase construction (e.g. Carcase sides to top and bottom, fixed shelving/partitions, drawer boxes, counter tops to carcase)
To prevent furniture from tipping over, which potentially can result in injury, furniture should be attached to walls. This is particularly important for tall and heavy furniture. Different types of screws can be used for this purpose depending on the wall material and construction. [9] If the wall has a suitable anchoring point (such as a wall stud) this may be suitable as an anchoring point using normal wood screws in a suitable size. On walls of plaster or masonry anchor points may not be available, and it can therefore be necessary to use a drywall anchor or wall plug, respectively. [9]
Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes, to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements.
Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product made by breaking down hardwood or softwood residuals into wood fibre, often in a defibrator, combining it with wax and a resin binder, and forming it into panels by applying high temperature and pressure. MDF is generally denser than plywood. It is made up of separated fibre but can be used as a building material similar in application to plywood. It is stronger and denser than particle board.
A fastener or fastening is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel.
A bolted joint is one of the most common elements in construction and machine design. It consists of a male threaded fastener that captures and joins other parts, secured with a matching female screw thread. There are two main types of bolted joint designs: tension joints and shear joints.
Particle board, also known as particleboard or chipboard, is an engineered wood product, belonging to the wood-based panels, manufactured from wood chips and a synthetic, mostly formaldehyde based resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed under a hot press, batch- or continuous- type, and produced. Particle board is often confused with oriented strand board, a different type of fiberboard that uses machined wood flakes and offers more strength.
A latch or catch is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on the other mounting surface. Depending upon the type and design of the latch, this engaged bit of hardware may be known as a keeper or strike.
A butt joint is a wood joint in which the end of a piece of material is simply placed against another piece. The butt joint is the simplest joint. An unreinforced butt joint is also the weakest joint, as it provides a limited surface area for gluing and lacks any mechanical interlocking to resist external forces.
A sex bolt is a type of fastener comprising a mated pair of screw and post, which are a machine screw and a nut that is barrel-shaped. The nut has a flange and a protruding boss that is internally threaded. The bolt sits within the components being fastened, and the flange provides the bearing surface.
A wall plug also known as an anchor (US) or "Rawlplug" (UK), is a fibre or plastic insert used to enable the attachment of a screw in material that is porous or brittle or that would otherwise not support the weight of the object attached with the screw. It is a type of anchor that, for example, allows screws to be fitted into masonry walls. In US English, mentions of drywall anchors are sometimes meant to refer specifically to the type of plastic wall plugs with expandable wings for hollow walls, in contradistinction with mollies and toggle bolts.
Anchor bolts are used to connect structural and non-structural elements to concrete. The connection can be made by a variety of different components: anchor bolts, steel plates, or stiffeners. Anchor bolts transfer different types of load: tension forces and shear forces.
A threaded insert, also known as a threaded bushing, is a fastener element that is inserted into an object to add a threaded hole. They may be used to repair a stripped threaded hole, provide a durable threaded hole in a soft material, place a thread on a material too thin to accept it, mold or cast threads into a work piece thereby eliminating a machining operation, or simplify changeover from unified to metric threads or vice versa.
A jam nut is a low profile type of nut, typically half as tall as a standard nut. It is commonly used as a type of locknut, where it is "jammed" up against a standard nut to lock the two in place. It is also used in situations where a standard nut would not fit.
An insert nut provides a threaded socket for a wooden workpiece, similar to a wall anchor. Insert nuts are inserted into a pre-drilled hole by one of two means: screw in and hammer in. In both cases, the external protrusions bite into the wood, preventing the nut from either turning or pulling out.
A speed nut, aka sheet metal nut or Tinnerman nut, is a type of locknut with two sheet metal prongs that act as one thread. They are made from spring steel.
A barrel nut is a specialized forged nut, and is commonly used in aerospace and ready-to-assemble furniture applications.
A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety of materials. Screws might be inserted into holes in assembled parts or a screw may form its own thread. The difference between a screw and a bolt is that the latter is designed to be tightened or released by torquing a nut.
A nut is a type of fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used in conjunction with a mating bolt to fasten multiple parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretching of the bolt, and compression of the parts to be held together.
A bolt is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to a matching nut. The bolt has an external male thread requiring a matching nut with a pre-formed female thread.
Confirmat screws or cabinet-connecting screws are screws designed to hold in particleboard, medium-density fiberboard, and similar materials. They are very common in furniture assembly, but are rare in retail. They may have flat or barrel heads. They have a blunt tip, a large shank, and they often have shoulder, a broad length of unthreaded shank just below the head, which helps hold the screw in position. They have a coarse thread, rather like masonry screws.