Hello! I drilled a hole in the drywall and inserted an M4 anchor. When I screwed it in, the "arms" twisted instead of expanding. See image.

I tested an anchor (held it with pliers and screwed it) and they work fine. But I don't know why they twist when they are in the wall.

Ideas? Tips?

Thanks!
 
  • Close-up of a metal M4 wall anchor with twisted arms, held between fingertips against a wooden background.
They should be expanded with pliers that do not rotate the plaster anchor. But I have done as you without problem.
 
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Mrtyalcin
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But I have installed many mollyplugs just by screwing as well, so it should work without the pliers too. But maybe it's different expanders. Unfortunately, I don't know.
 
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Mrtyalcin
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Best answer

What easily happens if you don't use pliers is that the entire expander starts spinning. And the metal tags that are supposed to grip the plaster then cut through the plasterboard. The entire plug becomes like a drill.

So pliers are good.

But what we see in the picture looks strange. It looks like the screw hasn't threaded properly.

In any case, you can fix it with pliers. They're a bit cheaper at Jula.
 
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Mrtyalcin
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if it looks like that, then the screw must go tightly in the "nut". In other words, the very end.
 
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Mrtyalcin
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If you pull on them with the screw, you should avoid the screwdriver (or run slowly on the lowest gear). If you go too fast, the thread usually cuts, and then it ends up like that ...

EDIT: If you've also bought cheap molly, like a box of 300 pieces for 49:90 kr at Harald Nyborg/Jem and fix, about half of them tend to be bad ....
 
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Mrtyalcin and 1 other
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Thank you for all the answers! That thing with gipstång was a new world for me. Now I know! I will try screwing slowly to see if it helps, otherwise, I'll buy or borrow a gipstång.
 
S
The thread cuts because when you insert it, some loose plaster gets on the thread, allowing it to cut directly. When you tested it outside, there was no plaster interfering with the thread.
 
I have stopped using Molly, using duomax instead. Avoid the tong.

Duomax wall anchor with blue and white components lying on a white background.
 
Another common mistake is using a hammer and driving in both the expander and the bolt, which causes the bolt to unthread and become difficult to turn. This also happens when using a too short expander plug.
 
Catfisce Catfisce said:
Another common mistake is using a hammer to drive in both the anchor and the bolt, which causes the bolt to thread out and become difficult to turn. This also happens when using an anchor plug that is too short.
Trying to use a bolt together with an anchor can easily become troublesome, indeed.
 
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Prodigys and 1 other
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