Self Drilling Metal Teks

[rod1949]

I’m not impressed with the Buildex Fibre Teks. A failure rate of 30%.

I’m building an all steel framed house and therefore have used an array of fasteners for metal. These fibre teks are the worst. I’ve been installing 6mm Villaboard in the wet areas of the house. It seemed that every second fibre tek was failing, so with the main bathroom I decided to do a count, the results being 305 successfully installed, 93 failed. What I found was happening is the fibre tek drills and screws through the board pulling the board out to the screw head and then the drilling tip wants to wander on the steel frame, the screw head and the driver bit go all skew whiff resulting in one buggered head thus a buggered screw. They’re time wasting and at near enough $100 / 1,000 (Bunnings) become expensive in all aspects.

The Wafer head self-drilling screws for metal aren’t much better. I used these to fix the aluminium window/door frames to the wall steel frames and nearly every time the screw was pressed against the frame to fix the screw would fall off the Tek Screw gun bit. The potential was always there to damage the powder coating of the window / door frames.

In both cases the recommended Phillips head bit has been used.

I’ve also had to use Bugle headed screws. With its recessed 6 sided bit drive I found it to be a very positive drive, the screw always stayed on the drive bit and never had a failure.

Recently I was screwing in a wafer head, I had to have my hand reasonable close to the fixing location, the screw buckled and fell off the drive bit ended up 10mm into my wrist. Luckily no damage tendons etc, just a bit of a hole in my wrist for a week or so.

My opinion is that Phillips heads on self-drilling screws for metal are dangerous and should be replaced, possibly with the bugle type head.


Foot note: I also advised Buildex, they have offered to come around and discuss the problem which I've taken up, so we'll see what they have to say/advise.

[Barry_White]

Hi Rod

Are you using the wing teks on the villaboard as recommended by Buildex.

http://www.spec-net.com.au/links/link195.htm

I do agree with you that the phillips slot is sometimes not good but I have found that you have to use a brand new phillips bit and possibly the ones made by Buildex themselves.

When I use them on villaboard without the wing tek I used to drill to the steel and then reverse the screwdriver whilst keeping pressure on the screw so as to to destroy the thread in the villaboard so as it doesn't run the villaboard up the screw when you start to drill the steel.

[rod1949]

No Bazza, These are what they push now http://www.spec-net.com.au/press/0107/itw_100107.htm

[Barry_White]

No Bazza, These are what they push now http://www.spec-net.com.au/press/0107/itw_100107.htm

I haven't seen them before Rod. If I had to use the I would use them in this manner as stated before.

When I use them on villaboard without the wing tek I used to drill to the steel and then reverse the screwdriver whilst keeping pressure on the screw so as to to destroy the thread in the villaboard so as it doesn't run the villaboard up the screw when you start to drill the steel.

It is a slow process but it does avoid the heartache and the damage.

[rod1949]

I haven't seen them before Rod. If I had to use the I would use them in this manner as stated before.

When I use them on villaboard without the wing tek I used to drill to the steel and then reverse the screwdriver whilst keeping pressure on the screw so as to to destroy the thread in the villaboard so as it doesn't run the villaboard up the screw when you start to drill the steel.

It is a slow process but it does avoid the heartache and the damage.

Yep its a fair enough comment, but its defeating the purpose. And when one is trying to hold a sheet in one hand and screw with the other and the Wife at the other end of the sheet the least amount of hastles the better.

[Rossluck]

With all due respect to your ability, Rod, what are you using to drive them in? I've used tons of TEKs, and I think that if you're driving them in with a weakish driver (cordless) and aren't exerting enough pressure, they tend to fail. My attitude is to get them in before they know where they are.

But I don't mean to annoy you about this. You probably know tons more about it than I do.

[rod1949]

Thats okay Rossluck.

Been using a Makita (240v) tek screw gun, full-on power. Can't remember the model but its in-excess of 20 years old and has screwed in many, many teks.

[Rossluck]

Thats okay Rossluck.

Been using a Makita (240v) tek screw gun, full-on power. Can't remember the model but its in-excess of 20 years old and has screwed in many, many teks.

I'm not all that great at it, but I've seen experts feeding them in at an incredible rate. They seem to punch them in with the driver, if you know what I mean. They can be a frustrating item.

[Schtoo]

I have no idea how many screws I have driven into steel (in the ten of thousands at least) and the most important thing is the bit you use.

It's gotta be good quality and in good condition. That simply means it's a tight fit in the screw head, and occasionally you might lose a tip in a screw because the bit is proper hard.

The ti-nite coating also helps. Sounds silly, but it did seem to stretch out bit changes from a week or so to two or three weeks.

That back drilling Barry mentions also helps on painful things. Sounds like a hassle, but if it saves fooling around in a compromised position then it will most likely be worth it in the long run.

[rod1949]

I've been away from work and hence this site since I posted this, but back at work now.

As I mentioned in my first post the bloke from Buildex came around and was very appreciative of the feed back. He looked and showed a problem the screws have, which is tiny glass beads in the philips head slots which does not allow the bit to fit in properly. Evidently the beads are used in the coating process of the screws. He also showed that a two speed tek gun is better that a single speed gun, which is what mine is.

He offerred a box of replacement screws to which I said no as I was finished with using the Villaboard screws. But he seen that I was into gyprocking the walls/ceilings and came back later in the day with a couple of boxes of gyprock screws.

[Rossluck]

I've been away from work and hence this site since I posted this, but back at work now.

As I mentioned in my first post the bloke from Buildex came around and was very appreciative of the feed back. He looked and showed a problem the screws have, which is tiny glass beads in the philips head slots which does not allow the bit to fit in properly. Evidently the beads are used in the coating process of the screws. He also showed that a two speed tek gun is better that a single speed gun, which is what mine is.

He offerred a box of replacement screws to which I said no as I was finished with using the Villaboard screws. But he seen that I was into gyprocking the walls/ceilings and came back later in the day with a couple of boxes of gyprock screws.

He's won me. I love stories like that.