I'm waiting for two callbacks, so let me hazard a reply. The beef is the
same as always, Arch. Harder means more brittle in steel. Of course, when
you're concerned about abrasion versus shock, hard is good, so it gets
confusing.

My take is that original "drywall screws" were just that - screws for
attaching drywall. Unfortunately, they got a bum rap from woodworkers,
because the screws, made as they were to attach soft material to harder, had
some truly weak undersize shanks which twisted off with frustrating
regularity. Mind you, you didn't cam out of those early ones, but rather
ate the crosspoints off your softer driver tip if you weren't careful.

Now comes the trouble - the term has become, like Kleenex, generic for black
phosphate screws, regardless of pattern. The ones you get now are really
woodworking screws, don't seem as prone to snapping off, and cam out like
crazy, which to me means they're softer. Driven me to square drive, though
the shelf stock still makes it a crapshoot at my house as to what I might
find in any particular length.

Good sense would seem to say use thicker shanks, don't install them into
hard woods with drills, but with driver/drills with a clutch, and make sure
they're snug so the whole thing won't flop and shock the screws. Of course,
good sense would also dictate not hacking at spinning work but rather
cutting, and I fear that's not all as common as it should be either.

I don't use faceplates. I use a pin chuck, and it's a truly soft piece of
wood and dumb move by me that rotates it over the pin. Guess that's why
when I did use faceplates, the "drywall screws" held to a "T."

Let the games begin!

"Arch" wrote in message
...

For years we have been warned re the danger of using files and drywall
screws, mostly owing to their brittle nature. Was this sound advice or
just rote repetition of some turner's bad experience that has become
gospel? We went thru this with gloves, and food safe finishes, and some
of us even remember when scraping was anathema.

Don Pencil, whose experience in making, using and teaching about
faceplates makes his differing advice and opinion well worth our
attention. There may be others who are not secure enough to openly go
against repeated dogma or those who can _personally_ corroborate the
danger of drywall screws. If so, I hope they will pitch in now, so rcw
can destroy or enforce this legendary warning.
SNIP
Bloody hell! Probably less than one in ten thousand inquiring rcw minds
really want to know.