CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Screws are Screws – Aren’t They?

Popular Woodworking Magazine: It usually happens as you hang a door or install a shelf. You’ve got a balancing act going as you hold one piece, steady a second piece and attempt to drive a screw all at the same time. Then, as you snug the screw those final few threads, the connection pulls tight and the screw snaps.
I was curious to find out why some screws break and others don’t. I know what I discovered will amaze you as much as it did me.

1 comment:

Ali Whyte said...

I think this article is so important. Especially in the world of theatre, tie is money, and wasting time pulling broken screws out of a piece of scenery and having to find and remeasure and recut a new piece wastes both time and physical resources. Screws, among other smaller and often overlooked items in the shop, are usually where people try to save that little bit of money. But as this article and the author's test showed, we might not actually have to spend that much more for higher quality. There is another aspect to this as well though: safety. If something goes in mostly right and will hold okay for what you ned it to do, most of the time that's fine; a show that only opens for a weekend doesn't need the structural stability of something out on tour, but that doesn't mean that a little more in the safety department would not be useful and appreciated. I think everyone working in and around the shop could really benefit from reading this article. Not only does the autor detail specific elements of screws and what they are and how they are different, but he goes into why it matters, which I think is something that not a lot of people take the time to consider.