Molly plug in steel stud

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 9:17 AM

Hi! Need help from experts! The hat rack fell down so now we're going to fasten it with molly plugs (drywall anchors). We drilled 10 holes and in all of them, we hit a steel stud.. have now plastered everything again. Can't deal with this. What to do? Can you fasten molly plugs in a steel stud? Won't it unfold then? How do you drill into steel? Do we need to buy a new drill (we have one for drywall) or just a drill bit? Should we get a stud finder? So much hassle just for a hat rack...

Avemo · 15 Oct 2017 at 9:24 AM

The steel stud can be easily drilled with regular high-speed steel drills. If your box doesn't explicitly say wood drill, it should work just fine. The sheet metal in the stud is so thin that it doesn't prevent the molly plug from expanding. The studs are upright and about 4 cm wide. If you hit a stud and want to avoid it, you can drill a couple of cm to the side. However, it should be stronger if you hit the stud.

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 9:33 AM

Thank you for the quick response! But it didn’t feel like we could drill through the steel, the drill almost broke (got scuffed). But the situation we have now is a number of filled holes (which we now have to sand and fill again and then paint..) that I assume we can't drill into.. again? So now either we try to find a spot without a stud or we try to drill into the steel..?

useless · 15 Oct 2017 at 9:45 AM

Buy better drill bits. Then drill with a thinner bit first and drill up to the correct dimension.
The studs are made of thin metal, so the drill bits must be really poor quality if it doesn't work. Or the wrong type of drill bit.

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 9:55 AM

Ok..! Trying with a smaller drill to get through the steel then. Can we drill into the hole that we putty-filled yesterday..?

useless · 15 Oct 2017 at 11:58 AM

Yes, it should work if you're careful so the drill doesn't slip away.

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:09 PM

But the strange thing is that the drywall is really thick!! I don't think expanding will work! What do we do now....

useless · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:16 PM

Are you sure it's drywall on studs and not plaster on concrete for example?

Polacoloco · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:16 PM

Sure it's sheet metal tile? Not rebar? They can be a bit tougher to drill through

How deep does the hole get before you hit a snag?

lordi · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:30 PM

K Klaman said:
But the strange thing is that the plaster wall is very thick!! I don't think expanding will work! What do we do now....

It could be double plasterboard. Then it is about 26 mm thick. There are longer molly bolts for this.

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:32 PM

We now have a hole about 5cm! And our molly plug won't be able to expand

we have used a "regular" drill and it feels like it's a drywall, but on the other hand, I don't know what lightweight concrete looks like..

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:33 PM

We used to have a gipsplugg before, but the shelf fell down... so we thought we would need to have an expander...

Klaman · 15 Oct 2017 at 3:41 PM

Here is a picture of the hole. 5cm. We have white fine dust, really think it's plaster...

Keld · 15 Oct 2017 at 4:58 PM

Google "toggler", they fit in most walls if there is a cavity.

Avemo · 15 Oct 2017 at 5:22 PM

If you have drilled a hole 5 cm into the wall and a drill bit has worn out from it, you can almost rule out that it is a drywall wall. If you knock on the wall, can you feel it give and hear a hollow sound? If the wall is solid, like knocking on a brick wall, then it is not drywall. It sounds like the wall is plastered. And in that case, it is not molly bolts you should use. When was the house built?