About the Screw Heads Breaking Off

You will recall that we bought two packages of 100 screws 1" long at the start. We noticed that the quantity in that size is getting low. So on my way to the farmer's market in North Gower, I dropped in to our local Hardware Store - Perkins Lumber and picked up another package of 100 screws size 6 guage and 1" long.

This screw is of a different design than the screws purchased earlier.

In the first picture is the first screw type that we bought where the screw thread continues the full length of the screw right up to the head. It has no shaft.

The second screw type as shown in the second picture has a short section of shaft between the thread and the head.

At the start we found that with the first screw type we often broke the head off the screw even when screwing it into a countersunk hole and it happened before the head made contact with the wood. It could be because of the heat difference between the head and the shank since the screws got quite hot and the screwdriver could keep the head cold. It is more likely because of the poor design where the neck is very narrow at the base of the screw head, or a combination of both that and the heat. With the new screw style intuition says that it should perform better since the break was always right below the head and that part is now better protected. Also The later design allows the screw to grip more the fastening wood and less the part that is being fastened.

See comments below for discussion on an effective solution.