Larry, I have fallen in love with the best toy ... tool for sinking those long decking screws. I have the Dewalt impact driver. You can put a drill with a quarter inch hex shank on it and drill the hole, then switch it to a driver bit and run anything home. It has plenty of torque and when the screw starts getting tight it will start impacting and extra force from me isn't required. You can do the exact same thing with a drill but the longer screws do require a bit of force to keep the bit in the screw head.
The longer screws should have a pilot hole first because they are a bit large in the diameter area. And it makes driving them much nicer too. As for the joist hangers, I think the jury is still out on them being the best. I use to different lengths of 2 by 4 to mount joists, studs or rafters. The first one has to be shorter because of the full 1.5 inch width of the first joist. Then from there out I use the second length to center the rest of them. Nice thing about the 2 by 4 is if you decide to nail the wood in place it can't drift sideways while pounding because you'd have to compress the 2 by 4. I've heard the double joist every 8 feet before but don't know that I'd worry about it. How large of a span are you making the loft? The double thing is to put support under it. If you are going across that shop of yours, I'd build the loft first and then run an I beam under it to support the weight without having all kinds of studs running up to the joists for support. A definite distraction to us that don't see them coming.; Here's hoping the Vette is finished! ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Stansifer To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 7:53 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Installing long wood screws Hi guys, Remember the shop loft we discussed last year that never got done for a hole bunch of reasons none of which are good? Well it and a couple of wood projects are about to bubble to the top in 08. My question for all of you wood guys is, how do I sink those 3+ inch decking screws making certain that: 1. they go in straight 2. making certain that they hit the joists underneath. 3. are those metal hanger thingies the best way to insure that my joists come out 16" on center? 4. I had some carpenter guy tell me that I needed to double up my joists every 8 feet, is this true? Wood and I not being the best of friends, this could turn into Americas funniest home talking book. I will except either good answers or good excuses Keep smiling. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
