Hello,
I am working on building my first ladder. It is a small ladder for access to a crawl space. My material is all douglas fir 2x. My stringers are 2x8 and my treads are 2x6. I ripped a bevel into my 2x6 treads to match the pitch of the ladder. I am preparing to attach the treads to the housing I routed in my stringer and a very experienced cabinet maker is encouraging me to use angled dowels (+ epoxy) rather than screws (+ glue). I have some very high quality GRK RSS Structural Screws (5/16" x 4") which have a shear strength of 2900 lbs. I know this debate is a long-standing one but I just can't wrap my head around why an angled dowel (with epoxy of course) would be a stronger connection than 2 of these GRK structural screws. Part of my hesitation probably lies in my lack of experience in drilling the angled holes for the dowels but I'm curious to learn more. I do think the dowels would be much more aesthetically pleasing but I do think when people talk about the inferiority of screws they don't always take into account some of the modern high-quality structural screws that are now readily available. It's as though people think screws and they immediately think you are using drywall screws.
Anyhow, there are so many knowledgeable pros here I figured I would ask.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
I am working on building my first ladder. It is a small ladder for access to a crawl space. My material is all douglas fir 2x. My stringers are 2x8 and my treads are 2x6. I ripped a bevel into my 2x6 treads to match the pitch of the ladder. I am preparing to attach the treads to the housing I routed in my stringer and a very experienced cabinet maker is encouraging me to use angled dowels (+ epoxy) rather than screws (+ glue). I have some very high quality GRK RSS Structural Screws (5/16" x 4") which have a shear strength of 2900 lbs. I know this debate is a long-standing one but I just can't wrap my head around why an angled dowel (with epoxy of course) would be a stronger connection than 2 of these GRK structural screws. Part of my hesitation probably lies in my lack of experience in drilling the angled holes for the dowels but I'm curious to learn more. I do think the dowels would be much more aesthetically pleasing but I do think when people talk about the inferiority of screws they don't always take into account some of the modern high-quality structural screws that are now readily available. It's as though people think screws and they immediately think you are using drywall screws.
Anyhow, there are so many knowledgeable pros here I figured I would ask.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.