Andrew Pitonyak
10-16-2014, 6:48 PM
I decided that I wanted a small chest of drawers to hold some tools. I had little time, so I created my drawers out of ½" plywood. The screws with the knobs and pulls that I had on hand were 1" long. For my knobs, the screws were about 1/16" too long, so I used a small washer. For the pulls, however, the screws were about ¼" too long; too much to just use washers. Although I have a stash of longer screws, I did not have any shorter screws that would work with the pulls.
My problems:
How to hold the screw while cutting?
How to mark where to cut?
How to cut?
How to clean the threads after cutting?
The screw head is larger than the screw, so, I needed a way to hold the screw in my wood vice. I took two small scrap pieces of ½" plywood.
I laid the screw on a piece of scrap plywood and I used my Paolini Pocket Rule to set the screw so that it had a bit more than ¼" sticking out the end (see http://www.woodpeck.com/paolini.html); you can use any ruler.
298536
Place the second scrap piece on top of the screw.
298537
The scraps are wide enough that they are wider than the screw head so I can place this into my vice. It is easy to pick up the screw and hold it with one hand. If you need to change how far the screw sticks out, turn the screw and the threads will move it in or out. The threads cut into the soft plywood holding the screw in place.
298538
Here is the screw in my vice. Not a very interesting picture, but, it gets the point across.
298539
It is easy to verify that the measurement is correct before you cut. Here I check the height while the screw is in my vice waiting to be cut.
298540
Although I own a couple of power tools that could easily cut the screw, my hacksaw was readily available and makes short work of the screw. I use scrap wood as a measure so I know where to cut. When I cut straight through from one side to the other, I had a small lip sticking up on one side of the screw. In this picture, you can see that I cut a bit from all around the screw rather so that I would not get a lip on the side that I had to take down with a file.
298541
This is the messy edge on the end of the screw after I cut the end. A couple of things to note. First, there is a slight raised section in the center of the screw. I could file that down if I wanted to, but, for this application it does not matter. If you look carefully, you can see actual cut marks where I cut in from multiple sides. You can likely also see that the threads are usable all the way around.
Usually, I would place a nut on the screw to clean the threads after I cut it, but, I did not have a nut to do this.
298542
Finally, here is the modified screw next to an unmodified screw.
298543
My problems:
How to hold the screw while cutting?
How to mark where to cut?
How to cut?
How to clean the threads after cutting?
The screw head is larger than the screw, so, I needed a way to hold the screw in my wood vice. I took two small scrap pieces of ½" plywood.
I laid the screw on a piece of scrap plywood and I used my Paolini Pocket Rule to set the screw so that it had a bit more than ¼" sticking out the end (see http://www.woodpeck.com/paolini.html); you can use any ruler.
298536
Place the second scrap piece on top of the screw.
298537
The scraps are wide enough that they are wider than the screw head so I can place this into my vice. It is easy to pick up the screw and hold it with one hand. If you need to change how far the screw sticks out, turn the screw and the threads will move it in or out. The threads cut into the soft plywood holding the screw in place.
298538
Here is the screw in my vice. Not a very interesting picture, but, it gets the point across.
298539
It is easy to verify that the measurement is correct before you cut. Here I check the height while the screw is in my vice waiting to be cut.
298540
Although I own a couple of power tools that could easily cut the screw, my hacksaw was readily available and makes short work of the screw. I use scrap wood as a measure so I know where to cut. When I cut straight through from one side to the other, I had a small lip sticking up on one side of the screw. In this picture, you can see that I cut a bit from all around the screw rather so that I would not get a lip on the side that I had to take down with a file.
298541
This is the messy edge on the end of the screw after I cut the end. A couple of things to note. First, there is a slight raised section in the center of the screw. I could file that down if I wanted to, but, for this application it does not matter. If you look carefully, you can see actual cut marks where I cut in from multiple sides. You can likely also see that the threads are usable all the way around.
Usually, I would place a nut on the screw to clean the threads after I cut it, but, I did not have a nut to do this.
298542
Finally, here is the modified screw next to an unmodified screw.
298543