Will Solid Surface Material Hold a Screw?
Advice on screw connections to solid surface material. June 12, 2014
Question
(WOODWEB Member):
I need to make a foldable ledge from a solid surface material and am wondering if it will hold the screws for hinges or if I should drill all the way through and use a nut and bolt. Anyone with experience in this area?
Forum Responses
(Solid Surface and Laminate Forum)
From contributor J:
We drill the SS and install a plastic bushing for screws at dishwashers when needed. Putting the screw directly into it is asking for trouble.
From contributor K:
I cannot speak for polyester solid surface, but we put screws into Corian all of the time. Two methods work well. The first is to drill your pilot hole deep enough and 1/32" smaller than a hole that a sheet metal screw will fall into. You want just the flukes on the screw to grip. The second is to drill and tap for a Heli-Coil and use a machine screw. We have snapped the heads off the screws without stripping,
From contributor R:
You can drill and tap the solid surface with metal working tooling. Use a bottoming tap to get the threads to nearly the bottom of the tap drill hole.
