Drill - what type do I need?

[JohnD]

Observe the holes in the rectangular piece.

They are not provided as ornaments.

 

[Burnerman]

Seriously guys and absolutely no offence.....I find Fischer stuff infinitely superior to those ......spline fit, sit level with the hole and slice off cleanly if they don't go all the way in. Any comments?
The drill size is marked too.
John

 

[Dave54]

I don't know John. (No really I don't know! )
Fischer are very good, I inherited a load of their fixings a while back and duly used them.
I've mostly used Rawlplug though, which I've found to be fine. Being a jammy sort, I'd nearly run out, when a mate of mine inherited a pile of tools and gear, and gave me a large coffee tin full of clips of new Rawlplugs. So I'll be on them for a bit yet!
I would agree about not using the plugs or screws provided with stuff though. They look the same as the good 'uns, but the screws are made of some special "anti-torque" steel ally that either snaps off at the thread or strips out the head recess, and the plugs always seem to be made from papier-mache.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'll normally just go with what I have - a box of common sizes and plugs to suit. you won't go too wrong with 6mm and 8mm drills. and screws from 40mm to 80m

From the perspective of a tradesman the "standard" plugs used in the UK for a lot of fixing are red (5.5mm) and brown (7mm). Reds will take smalkler screws of #6 to #8 size whilst browns will take #8 to #12 sizes. Fischer plugs are a bit of a German thing, and therefore different. The reason for 7mm is very simple - a 7mm hole through a piece of wood allows the wood to be held in place with a #10 or 5.0mm countersunk head screw - an 8mm hole is just too big for this with many brands of screw. Incidentally when drilling into softer blockwork it is sometimes necessary to reduce the drilling to 5mm/6.5mm or even 4.5mm/6mm respectively. The same applies to the metric equivalents. And if you stick to this there's no wondering about what drill goes with what plug, either.....

also different screws annoyingly have different heads. so sometime you strip the thread without realising it's because the bit is too small

Screws of Imperial gauges #4 or #6 generally use PZD#1 (althougfh a few #6 screws have PZD#2 heads), #8 and #10 screws mosly come with PZD#2 recesses and #12s (about the largest most folk will ever encounter) come with PZD#3 recesses. The biggest problem with stripping heads I find is that people confuse Phillips bits with Pozidriv bits. The bits are most certainly NOT interchangeable. It shouldn't be an issue as long as the correct type of bit/driver is used on a screw. For reference the vast majority of woodwork screws sold these days are still PZD, whilst Phillips is found on drywall screws in many cases.

Oh, and I NEVER use supplied screws with hardware unless they are extremely special because the steel used seems to be similar in properties to cream cheese! Far better to reduce any risk and go to the screwbox and use decent steel screws from a known source