Many of these still work with a Phillips bit, but not anywhere near as well as with the bit they’re designed for. If you’re working with a special screw, make sure you have the bit designed to match.

The primary reason your screw won’t go into the wood is that it’s reached a particularly dense section of wood, and needs a bit more force. To mitigate the issue, drill a larger pilot hole, use a better quality screw, or get a more powerful drill/driver.

Until that happens though, you’ll just have to error on the side of caution, and charge the battery when you think it might be dying.

As you probably know, your drill bit needs to match the screw you’re working with. This sounds obvious, but there are a bunch of variations on a typical Phillips head bit, and many look very similar.

Before we dive into some of the various issues that might be wrong with your wood or drill/driver, lets check that all of the basics are in order!

If the drill applies too much force, the screw will drive too far into the wood before you have a chance to stop it. Alternatively, it could strip the screw head, which is a giant pain to deal with.

This is a star (or “torx,” as the fancy people say) style screw head, and it’s wonderfully easy to drive these screws into wood.

It’s also worth noting that drill bits come in different sizes. #2 is the most common size of Phillips bit, but some extra small screws might require a #1 bit, or extra large screws a #3.

But some more expensive screws are truly better, and there are some clear features that make it easier to drive high quality screws.

Obviously, “wood screws” are designed for wood, but construction screws work well too, and even drywall screws will work in a pinch.

Also consider using a countersink bit (used in the photo above,) which will make a little spot for the head of the screw to sit.

If you’re not working with hardwood or a softwood with an obvious knot, don’t worry, there are some other reasons too, so keep reading!

This sounds dumb, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put a screw onto wood, pressed the trigger, then wondered why on earth the screw wasn’t going into the wood, before realizing the drill was in reverse.

If you’ve tried all the above techniques, and you’re still not able to drive the screw all the way into the wood, consider upgrading your drill.

Self-driving screws have this convenient little notch in the side of the screw that make it easier to drive the screw into the wood:

Also make sure you look at the head of the screw, and make sure it isn’t stripped. Stripped screws are when a drill bit has worn away the slots in the head of the screw. They look like this:

But if you already had a pilot hole that was the right diameter and went the full depth you needed for your screw, and you still can’t drive the screw all the way in, then you need a larger pilot hole.

Once you’ve ruled out mechanical issues, it’s likely that you’re just working with wood that’s particularly dense and difficult to drive screws through.

If you’re not sure if you need a pilot hole, check out this post devoted to that question. But long story short, if you’re struggling to drive the screw into the wood, you need a pilot hole.

Some drill/drivers are more powerful than others, and an upgrade from a cheap drill/driver to a more powerful drill/driver can make a big difference.

Additionally, the rotational force is applied in a way that is better for driving screws than drilling, which is what makes it so much better at driving screws than a drill/driver.

So if you still can’t get your screw into the wood, and you need an excuse to buy a new tool, go get yourself an impact driver.

If you didn’t drill a pilot hole, or drilled one that was too small, widen the hole with the correct sized drill bit, and try driving the screw again.

The higher the number, the more force the drill tries to apply to the screw. So, if your screw won’t go all the way into the wood, turn the clutch setting to a higher number.

If you’ve never heard of an impact driver, it’s basically a drill/driver that’s designed for the sole purpose of driving screws. And, as you might expect, it does a better job at that than the more versatile drill/driver.

First off, the chuck of an impact driver only accepts hex-style drill bits, which are the kind that are used to drive screws.

FYI – if you regularly run into stripped screws, I tested a bunch of hacks for removing stripped screws in this Youtube video. There was a clear winner, so go check it out!

I’ve done this on softwood, but I wouldn’t try it on hardwood, or on wood that’s already proved difficult to drive screws into.

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But there are better style screw heads, with more contact points where the drill bit hits the screw, which makes the drill bit even less likely to slip out of the slots. This makes it easier to drive the screw.

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If it’s not, change the direction. If you’re not sure how to do that, there’s typically a trigger on the side of the drill/driver that controls the rotation direction. Here’s what that looks like on my drill:

Dies are used with a wrench or in a die stock tool to cut external threads on metal rods or repair or rethread an existing threads. Available in U.S. and Metric sizes.

As you gain experience and get used to working with your drill/driver, you’ll start to recognize the sound of a dying battery.

So, maybe you’re trying to drive a screw into wood. It gets halfway in, then stalls. Or maybe, you can’t get it to start at all.

They’re called “self-driving” for a reason. This little notch is apparently so great that you can drive the screw into wood with only a screwdriver, no pilot hole or drill/driver required.

There are plenty of other styles as well – basically anything that isn’t a flathead or a Phillips head screw is an upgrade.

But machine screws have a flat tip instead of a pointy tip, and those will never work. You can see a picture of that below:

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If you’re skeptical of that claim – I hear you. I do lots of expensive vs cheap tool tests on my Youtube Channel, because I’m also hesitant to accept that expensive=better.

The drill bit required to drive the screw makes a big difference. Phillips head screws are obviously really common, because they’re a decent mix of cheap and secure.

It’s suppose to be a wood screw… but something went very wrong during manufacturing. No pointy end. No threads. This screw isn’t going to do a thing.

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You might be struggling to see the difference with this one – Pozidrive screws have four little notches in each quadrant of the normal Phillips pattern.