There was a time when many woodworkers needed to create starter holes for screws in order to make them enter the substrate more easily. Over the years, repeated refinements created sharper tips and threads, offering greater incisive power and a far more reliable tapping process. Today most screws are self-tapping, meaning them don't need a home to enter the material at hand and the threads create their own grooves as they spin. Any screw with a pointed tip can be called self-tapping, but that doesn't mean there aren't gradations of quality and efficacy in the breed. Screws that are made of hardier alloys tend to last longer and slip less, creating a more solid bond between surfaces. Countless head types are available as well, from sunken slotted truss heads through rounded Phillips heads and more. These days, the rise of specialty wrenches has created even more varieties of screw, offering craftsmen the chance to work in tight spaces using Allen wrenches and motorized devices. Whether you want a self-piercing hex head or a simple square drive with a loose A thread, choosing the right screw for the job requires knowing something about the density or ductility of the materials at hand. Thankfully, the Web has exploded the market for hardware such as this, and today you can find a wide variety of tapping screws in every possible size and material. Look around long enough and you may even be able to secure a bulk purchase on the kind if item that should put you in good stead for many years to come.
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