No seriously. I’m fashioning a desk out of some old drawers and hollow-core door. How should I secure the door to the drawers (from underneath, obviously)? Nail or screw? Pre-drill holes? I’m clueless.
I would use screws for strengath. Always drill pilot holes for screws or you risk splitting the wood. A bit of soap on the threads makes it easy to drive them in.
Assuming you really want this to hold together - glue. With a hollow core door, there are only limited locations where you can get into the rails at the edges of the door. A good glue bond will give you high strength anywhere you want it. Use a good furniture glue and use appropriate length screws to hold things together so the glue will set strongly.
how about the type of screws used for hollow walls? you know, with the flaps that open up inside the wall …
If it’s truly a hollow core door, you’ll likely have problems getting screws to hold in the ~1/8-1/4" thickness of the wood. Nails would be even worse. A hollow wall anchor, like this or similar, is what you want. The plastic bit will expand inside the hollow of the door and give you a good tight connection. There are a variety of different designs to be found at most hardware stores, and they’ll cost you maybe 25 cents apiece. Go take a look.
They make little brackets that look like a figure 8 bent 90 degrees in the middle, I think they are called bed hooks, or something like that. they are about 1 1/2 inches long and screw into the side of the drawer and into the bottom of the door. Do as QED said re: pilot holes. Use a #10, PHP or FHP screws about 5/8 to 3/4" long (#10 is relatively thick shaft, very easy to find at home depot-so are the brackets) Each bracket takes two screws. Use 8 brackets, four on each pedestal. If you plan on carrying the desk by lifting with the top, add 4 more brackets. Do not even think of a nail. I assume you are talking about two drawer banks
and the desk laying over the top of them.
To put it together.
Set the top on and be sure it is squarely, evenly over the drawer boxes, and positioned where you want it in relation to the overhangs. Place eacn bracket about where it will go, (about 2" in) and mark where the holes are with a pencil. Be sure the bracket is tight to the top and the box when you mark. After marking all the holes, (on the side of the drawer box, and the bottom of the top). take the top off and drill the holes as QED stated. Drill a hole about half the diameter of the scred shaft. Put it together without stripping the screws,. or like they say, 1/2 turn short of stripping the threads. It should work fine.
Thanks all.