Self Drilling & Self Tapping Screws

Self-tapping screws are screws that can tap its own hole as it is driven into the material. Self-tapping screws are used for all sorts of material including wood, metal and brick, but cannot drill through metal and require a pilot hole to be pre-drilled before installation. For harder surfaces, self tapping screws might have little notches on the thread to help cut the thread. Not all tapping screws have a pointy tip, some will be blunt or flat.

While self-tapping screws will tap a hole into a soft material, self-drilling screws are capable of drilling a hole into anything from metal to wood. This key difference is self-drilling screws have a tip like a drill bit, so they do not need a pilot hole.