Screw suggestion for MDF machines

[DJ Morrow]

As I've been assembling my router with MDF, I've been trying to figure out the best hardware to use. I tried using threaded inserts but keeping everything lined up was a bit of an issue. Here's a link that will show you some knock down furniture screws. The longer ones are about 2 1/2" long which are what I'm using now. They have a nice coarse thread and can be removed quite a number of times. Top left in the picture. They are driven in with an allen wrench. I think I paid about $15 Cdn for a bag of 100.

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...D=&ccurrency=1

The catalog page is Lee Valley Tools in Canada but any fine woodworking shop is bound to carry them. Lee Valley does mail order and their service and quality is usually top notch.

[AJ_Mac2001]

I've played around a bit with various fasteners on my first build. In the end I found the most forgiving method of attachment was to use a bolt/nut with large washers - through an oversized hole. eg. a 3.8" hole for a 1/4" bolt. This gave enough wiggle room to line everything up bang on. When the bolt gets cranked up nothing moves. As a final measure, you could always throw in a screw or two to avoid any slippage later... but to date I've found no problems... and that's with me sitting on the gantry and jumping up and down

This worked well even with butt joints... but I had to use a hole saw to make a large enough access point to get the nut/washers in, and have enough meat to hold the forces. Kindof like those eccentric cams in knockdown furniture.