this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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Woodworking
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More important than the screws is the furniture you're building. Is it a bed? Table? Giant Victorian highboy with a bajillion drawers? The knock-down needs for all of those are different.
So uh... What are you making?
First in the order of business is a bookcase.
If you search for "knockdown bookshelf" you'll find tons of options. But my preferred way would be:
Vertical sides with a dado for each shelf. The top shelf should be set a few inches below the top of the side boards. Use the extra height on the sides for decoration.
For the top and bottom shelves (and if you're doing it tall, maybe also the middle shelf), in addition to the dadoes, make a pair of wide through mortises.
The top and bottom shelves get extra long tenons to go through the mortises. They should stick out enough to put a tusk or wedge on the outside.
Put all your shelves in, stick the wedges in the tenons, and enjoy your rock solid bookshelf.
Generally speaking, putting the full weight of a shelf onto any screws is a dangerous idea. Screws tend to fall immediately and completely, and that'll take the whole shelf with it. If you prefer to go screws, still a good idea to add dadoes into your side pieces to hold the weight, and use the screws to hold the sides in place.
I apreciate the suggestion but, at best, that is overly technical and requires tools I don't have and can't fit in my house, like a table saw.
Opting for screws, as I see it, will allow me to build around the concept of basic boxes I can put together with a strong conector that does not require skill beyond knowing how to properly operate a hand drill, to then stack to form the final bookcase.
My concern is finding a connector that will allow for repeated assembly and disassembly, if necessary, without sacrificing strenght and ease of use, while minimizing wear and tear of the hole.
Do you have a circular saw? You can do the dadoes in the sides with that by setting up a guide and taking multiple passes. Use a chisel to clean up the base afterward and it'll be great. For repeatable assembly, maybe go for those threaded inserts combined with hex bolts.
I have but I lack the hability to use it to that level of hability. I've tried on very rough work, where precision wasn't a high requirement, and the results were disastrous.
Practice time! Good luck dude