That time my garage cabinet project fell apart because I skipped the pilot holes

I was building some simple wall cabinets in my garage last spring, and I got a little too confident after watching a few videos on YouTube. I figured I could just screw everything together without drilling pilot holes first, especially since the wood was just basic plywood from Lowes. Well, three cabinets in, I split a big chunk off the side panel near the top corner. The whole thing looked shaky and I had to scrap that panel and start over with a new sheet of 3/4 inch plywood, which cost me around 40 bucks extra. My neighbor walked over while I was cussing at it and just said "you know, a drill bit is cheaper than a trip back to the store." Now I always take the extra 30 seconds to pre-drill even soft pine, and I haven't had a split since. Anyone else been burned by skipping the basics?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hannah16d ago

Oh man, did you hear about my buddy Dave? He tried to hang some heavy shelving in his basement and skipped pilot holes too, ended up splitting a 2x4 right down the middle. The whole shelf came crashing down two days later and knocked over his paint cans, made a huge mess on the concrete floor. His wife was not happy about that one, cost him like 50 bucks in clean up supplies and a fresh 2x4.

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dixon.ryan16d agoMost Upvoted

That's rough about Dave's shelf disaster. @the_hannah, I've seen so many people skip pilot holes and pay for it later. A split 2x4 is no joke when you're hanging heavy stuff, that shelf was doomed from the start. The paint can mess just adds insult to injury, that cleanup is brutal on concrete. Hopefully Dave learned his lesson, pilot holes take like an extra minute.