Tuesday, September 10, 2013

A Story

While I was writing the series of posts about construction of the varmint panels, Cindy reminded me to add a power drill to the list of tools used to construct the panels.  You need that to drill pilot holes in the plexiglass and to drive the screws into the 1 x 1 wooden stakes.

 Years ago, when Cindy was constructing the very first set of panels, she first tried using nails to secure the plexiglass to the stakes.  That idea didn't work too well-- it was tedious, time consuming work and the nails tended to rust and pull out through the plexiglass, so she decided to use the zinc screws instead.  With the wider heads on the screws, they don't tear out of the plexiglass like the nails did.  You could also use 3/4 inch zinc wood screws with washers, too.

So she borrowed my electric drill to drill pilot holes in the plexiglass and drive the screws into the wooden garden stakes.

After she had driven about half a dozen screws in, I asked her how it was going and she told me she didn't think the drill was very powerful because it took so much effort to drive the screws in.

I took the drill, flipped the switch from "reverse" to "forward" and gave it back to her.

It worked much better in "forward", but she must have driven all those first screws on sheer arm strength and will power.

1 comment:

Kay said...

Actually, she had already drilled the holes through the plexiglass and was just replacing the nails with screws.