Articles
One Great Tip » Wax Coating Wood Screws
Wax Coating Wood Screws
By Dan Reczek
Photos Dan Reczek
Posted: October 02, 2009
When driving a wood screw into wood without a pilot hole, I like to wax my screws to help prevent splitting. I found it time consuming to sit and rub bee's wax or candle wax on each screw, so I came up with this idea.
Take a toilet seal wax ring (around $2.00 at any hardware store) and melt it into an empty small dog/cat food can. This way, all you have to do is dip the screw into the wax and pull it out. The threads hold on to the soft wax for a perfect coating. 
When the wax gets full of holes, I just set the can in my coffee cup warmer for a while and the wax melts down to a nice and flat surface for the next use. You can purchase cup warmers or candle warmers at just about any craft store. I use a plastic can lid to keep the wax from getting on anything else when I need to carry it in my toolbox.
Dan is a registered member of the WWGOA.
Submit your favorite woodworking tip or technique to: editor@wwgoa.com and you could earn $100 if we publish your idea.
6 Comments
I have been using toilet bowl wax seals for years and never thought of the dog food trick. Another terrific idea. Kimball
Posted October 07, 2009 // 10:02 AM Looks like a great idea, am going to try it. Thank you.
Posted October 07, 2009 // 1:30 PM This is too easy. Also, it is cheap. I have found that most tips end up costing $$$. Great idea and it works.
Posted October 29, 2009 // 2:21 PM Thanks for your positive reply. Glad you like it. One thing I didn't say in my description that I also do is, while I have the wax melted I pre-dip some screws in the hot wax. This puts a nice micro fine film of wax on the screw.
Posted October 07, 2009 // 6:09 PM If you can afford it, buy it! This sander is one of those tools that you don't use every day, but when you need it nothing even comes close. It's like having a Fein Multimaster. There are some jobs that can't be done with anything else. P.S. I got mine on Ebay at a considerable savings.
Posted October 09, 2009 // 9:26 AM Wonderfully simple, thanks. Jake