Why you should use a Countersink Bit

When you're making your own furniture or decor accessories, a countersink bit allows you to disguise screws.

14/08/2017

When making projects where screw heads will be visible, you need to be able to hide or disguise these so that they don't spoil the finished look of your project. While you could use wood filler to hide screw heads, wood filler doesn't take stain well and you will still be able to see where there are screws. And if you are making furniture that needs to be taken apart at some stage, beds for example, you can't cover these screws with wood filler. That's why it's important to drill a countersink hole.

A countersink bit drills a hole that accepts the screw head and allows it to sit just below the surface of the wood or board product. Without a countersink hole, the screw head sits on top of the wood or board (shown above).

Not only is it important to drill a countersink hole, it's also important that the countersink hole be the right size for the screw. You want the screw head to be just below the surface (as shown below). To know how deep to drill the countersink hole, place the head of the screw in the drilled hole. If it just fits inside the hole - you're good to go.

When you want to hide or disguise screws on furniture that is to be stained, or furniture that needs to be able to be taken apart, there are a variety of plastic screw caps and self-adhesive screw covers that you can use. You will find more information here on these products..

The reason for drilling the right size of countersink hole is, so that you can use plastic screw caps or self-adhesive screw covers to temporarily disguise screws and make it easier to take apart at a later stage - or not have to worry about the screws being visible if you are staining the project.