“Moreover you shouldn’t be driving them with an impact driver, the instructions say to drive them with a hammer drill.” Aha, that’s true. “Any Tapcon below 3/16” is garbage"? Do you mean 3/8" or maybe 5/16"? I don’t think they come any smaller than 3/16". Why did I bother with Tapcons? What did I do wrong? They required a 1/4" bit (so that was a third carbide bit to purchase) but my M12 Fuel hammer drill again had no problem drilling a 3" hole (I was generous.) I tapped the anchors in with a hammer, tightened them up, and done. I ended up using the smallest Parawedge anchors (with the cone-shaped nut that expands a brass collar in the hole). The screws have to be short enough that your tools can snug them down, but long enough to handle the pull-out forces, and who knows what those are? and even if you get it right, your typical DIY level tools might not cut it. So I think Tapcons are very picky about depth and diameter. Incidentaly, my M12 Fuel hammer drill had no problem drilling the holes.Īnd lo, my M12 impact driver (not a Fuel) wouldn’t drive the screws all the way in. I figured the fatter screws would resist breaking better, and the shorter screws would reduce the torque on them (because the resistance increases the farther you drive them.) Again, I used a Tapcon drill bit for the holes, but 3/16" this time. So I tried again, with 1/4" x 1 1/2" Tapcon screws. So the hole is now useless, and I have to reposition the base. Well one screw broke off in the hole about halfway down. So I bought an expensive, weird 5/32" bit, the one Tapcon recommends. The first time I used 3/16" by 2 1/2" Tapcons, reasoning that the pullout loads wouldn’t be big, and a narrower hole would be faster to drill. I was trying to attach a base for a Little Library to concrete (on a 4x4 post, into a plastic post base). The second time was today, and last week. The bit is sized specifically to let the screws drive into concrete. I chatted with the Tapcon helpline, and it turns out the screws had probably bound up in the steel base plate. I drilled holes with the Tapcon bit through the rail’s base plate into the concrete, and tried to drive the Tapcons, but they stalled out about halfway through. The first time was to attach an outdoor guard rail to the sidewalk concrete. I was kind of excited about Tapcons, because they let you a smaller hole than with anchors.
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