A dowel screw is a metal fastener with two threaded, tapered ends used in furniture and wooden items. They are inserted into pre-drilled guide holes and require special screwdriver heads to avoid flattening the threads. Removal can be difficult, but they can be back filled or sawn in half to sever a connection.
A dowel screw is a cylindrical metal fastener with two threaded, tapered ends. Two wood screws with the head cut off and welded together with the cut ends form a dowel screw. These screws are often used in furniture and other wooden items to create a joint with visible connectors. Half the length of the screw is inserted into one surface of the joint. The surfaces are aligned at the connection point and rotated into place to drive the other half of the screw all the way down.
Rigid parallel grooves on the outer handle of the dowel screw and hold the material they are driven into. Most dowel screws are steel for added strength. These screws are available in a variety of widths and lengths to meet the requirements of most projects. Many screws are zinc coated, or galvanized, to protect them from corrosion from exposure to moisture.
Installing a dowel screw cannot be done with an ordinary screwdriver. Dowel screws are usually driven into previously drilled guide holes that are slightly narrower and shorter. Holding the screws in a pair of pliers or a vise can flatten the threads and render the fastener useless. Special dowel screwdriver heads are designed to sink the fastener into a surface without pinching the threads. Multiple dowel screws on the same joint share the weight load and increase the strength of the joint.
Dowel screws are sometimes included with the furniture to be assembled. These fasteners are usually designed to be twisted by hand without the use of any tools. Assembly instructions may also include adding a small amount of wood glue into the guide hole before screwing in the dowel screws. The screws are ready to install into the adjacent surface once the wood glue has dried. Overdriving a dowel screw into the particle board used in inexpensive furniture can cause cracks that reduce the stability of the piece.
The difficulty of removal increases significantly once the dowel screw has been installed in both joint surfaces. Using brute force to separate the connection usually results in damage to one or both of the connected pieces. Dowel screws can usually be back filled or sawn in half to sever a connection without causing a break. The protruding section of each half can then be gripped with pliers and unscrewed completely.
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