EA,
It's called aircraft technology. There are riv nuts and all kinds of solutions out there. All of them spread the load across a
large area. EBay is your friend. Consider a doubler and pop rivets. Cheap dirty and very strong.
Steve

"Existential Angst" wrote in message ...
Awl --

Yeah, I know, a sheetmetal screw.....

But are there designs esp. good for semi-heavy loads attached to 16 ga metal frames? At least I think they are 16 ga....

The problem I have with traditional sheet metal screws is that the ratio of the major to the minor diameter seems kind of small,
ie, there doesn't seem to be enough thread "behind" the sheet metal.

Is the idea for the thread to grab the 16 ga material in the minor diameter and sort of wedge it, or to thread/cut into the
material? Apropos of the latter, are chassis screws viable? Still made?

Are sheetrock screws a no-no? I like coarse SR screws, bec they seem to have a large root/major diam ratio.

Sources for the "right kind" of fastener for this app?
--
EA