Grip-Rite Screw Gripe .... Alternative?

[Steve Mathews]

I've been using Grip-Rite General Purpose (Gold) screws from Home Depot for a while but lately the heads are snapping off in greater numbers using an impact driver. The Phillips head has always been a nuisance so I've been thinking of switching to something else that is of better quality. Any suggestions?

[Paul F Franklin]

GRK or Spax. T-star drive and very strong.

[Mel Fulks]

I like the tan color-coated screws sold at big box stores. Star head drive. Might be the ones you are using now.
A little bees wax on the tips help a lot ,much better than parafin ,but I don't need that often.

[mike stenson]

GRK or Spax. T-star drive and very strong.

Yes. It took me one box to become a fan.

[Jim Matthews]

Mcfeely's "lube" screws work for me and my Makita.

I'll round off the square bit before snapping a screw head.

[mike stenson]

Mcfeely's "lube" screws work for me and my Makita.

I'll round off the square bit before snapping a screw head.

Really? My last order from McFeely's was cabinet screws (multiple boxes), and those things have the robertson recess round out more often than any other screw I've used. Oh and I've had a bunch snap in the wall too. Yes, I wax my screws.

Also to be clear, this is into SPF. GRKs sink without a problem.

[Tom Bain]

GRK are my favorite general purpose screws.

[Ben Rivel]

GRK or Spax. T-star drive and very strong.
Yep! All I use these days!

[Andrew Seemann]

The gold construction screws from Menards work well if you have that option. Note that if you are going into a very hard wood like maple or oak, you need to pilot drill the screws and countersink flat or bugle heads, otherwise you will either snap the head or strip the drive regardless of screw type/brand.

Torx/star drive will transfer more torque to the screw, but I find them a little harder to start sometimes than Philips head; they seem to slip off bit more often while first biting. The longer length of the Phillips bit keeps the screw in line better than the wider than long torx profile. Sometimes that matters and other times it doesn't. The drive won't affect the head snapping off though; that is a function of the shank size, alloy, and brittleness, not drive type.

I stopped using HD screws years ago for the same reason, the heads had a tendency to snap off.

[Dan Friedrichs]

GRK. I use them for everything.

[Ken Kortge]

I recently built four 12x12 foot horse stalls using something slightly less than 1000 McFeely's #10 promax 2-7/8 inch nocorode square drive flat head screws, and I didn't have a single screw strip out, or torque off a head or shaft. All using a Bosch 18V impact driver with McFeely nocorode bits.

I've used their #8 nocorode square drive flat head screws with impact drivers on smaller projects for many years without any strip outs or torqued heads/shafts. I'm quite surprised someone had this problem.

I did have a blue coated 1-1/4 inch Kreg pocket hole screw's head pop off when used to hold down a metal bracket (I"ll admit it is not the screw's intended use), and I had a Fleet-Farm purchased #12 hex head screw's head torque off when mounting a hay feeder (probably cheap screws - no excuse for a #12).

I'll also say I'm a BIG fan of the big Spax powerlag screws that can hold big lumber and timbers. Amazing! I'm also agree that Spax and GRK are among the best wood screws money can buy. Until lately I had thought of Spax & GRK screws as too expensive to use, but lately I'm thinking that they are a better buy than I'd thought.

[mike stenson]

Ok, cool. I asked, because that was the first time I'd had a problem with them.. but 5 boxes of screws having the same issue... kind of turned me off. Maybe the whole batch was bad.

[Andy D Jones]

I got a free box of Deckmate screws with torx heads, with a few sheets of OSB from HD. About 10% of them had too much coating left in the bottom of the torx socket, and would not engage the driver bit properly.

I guess that's why they were free...

I generally prefer torx head screws to robertson or phillips heads.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Adam Herman]

i'm with most of the others here. GRK and SPAX and the fasten master XXlok stuff when iI need something large/structural. I don't care that it costs 10x as much sometimes for a screw. Life is not long enough to suffer through another box of cheapo fasteners.

another questions though? anyone make a decent self drilling/tapping screw? the everbuilt ones at the borg are predictably terrible, but its all they have.

[Lloyd McKinlay]

Another vote for GRK and Spax. Also the online Quickscrews.com has a huge selection and good quality.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

GRK are the best IMHO, but spendy. For construction type screws I've found that Sabre brand are really good. I actually like them slightly better than GRK for one reason, they size pretty much all sizes and lengths with the same size torx. Substantially cheaper than GRK for the widely used 3" construction screw.