hey folks I'm Dennis thanks for watching my video today I'm going to show you how to use toggle bolts or Molly bolts as some people call it toggle bolts for best use when you have to hang something on drywall and when you can't hit a stud with your screws or your hangers due to either spacing or size so let me show you how to use them and how they work okay I've just made up like a little test wall here with some half-inch drywall on it so that I can show you how the toggle bolts work from the front side and the back side they come in sets you got a screw in a toggle so that screws onto the screw this way so some folks seems a little backwards but that's how it goes on like that you always want to make sure that you screw them on far enough to where there's three or four threads exposed beyond the toggle like this I'll show you why in a minute so you drill your hole in your drywall and you push it through and then on the back side it pops open pulls up against the back of the drywall and then you can secure your item on the front side the reason you want to make sure that you've got some threads exposed on this side is sometimes what folks who want to do is screw it to weather just thread it up it's it's threaded up fine inside it's two or three threads past the threaded portion in the middle but when you go to push it through the drywall if you get it crooked just a little bit one side will pop open before the other and then if you push it on through and now you can't get that toggle to the bite on the backside of the drywall if you thread it up so there's a few threads exposed outside the toggle when that happens you push it through you get a little crooked it pops open you continue to push through the other side will pop open then it will still bite so you don't have a you'll have a problem with making the talk will operate on the back side of drywall so anyway that's tip number one toggle bolts come in different sizes, examples are 1/8", 3/16", 3/4" the first number is the size of the toggle bolt and most not all of them but a lot of toggle bolts will have it printed right here it's kind of the basic width of the toggle but not really yes so I'm not real sure how they size these things because nothing you measure on here is an eighth of an inch but anyway that's what size they go by. the second number for example this one is1/8 inch by 2 this one is 1/8 inch by 3 the second number is the length of the screw whether it's 2 inches or 3 inches or whatever they come in all different sizes you want to make sure that the screw is long enough to not only account for the toggle when it's compressed you've got to allow for that much room but you've also got to allow for the thickness of the drywall and for the thickness of whatever it is you're hanging so if you're running this screw through something that's an inch thick and you have half-inch drywall which is common on most walls in the US and then this takes another inch then you're gonna need to at least have a two and a half inch screw though the size of the toggle determines how much weight it can carry basically an eighth inch toggle can handle about 200 pounds in tension and a little more than that in sheer sheer is like directly down the wall or up the wall and tension is pulling away from the wall so an 1/8-inch toggle can handle about 200 pounds of tension a 3/16 can do about 250 pounds and a quarter-inch toggle can do about 300 pounds all right next tip on most toggle bolts available in the US there will be some information either on the front or on the side to tell you what size drill bit you need for eighth inch toggles you need to drill a 3/8 hole three sixteenths toggles you need to drill a 5/8 hole and for quarter inch toggles you need to drill a three quarter hole now if you have a stud finder before you go hanging something on the on the wall take your stud finder and use it to find the studs if you can line up the heavy thing that you're hanging on to a stud that's even better but that's going to be more secure you don't have to drill such a big hole in your drywall and you can mount your hangers directly in the studs studs in the US are typically spaced every 16 inches so when you find the center of one 16 inches over most of the time you'll find the center of another one if you don't have a stud finder what I recommend doing is take your drill and get a real small diameter bit like a sixteenth inch bit something like that and drill a test hole so say I want my hanger to be right here I'm gonna drill a test hole right here if if I drill through the sheetrock and I hit a stud I'm gonna have some resistance you know about a half inch in once I get all the way through the sheetrock or the drywall if there's nothing back there and it's at the hollow portion of the wall then once I drill about a half-inch in I'm gonna feel no resistance in my my drill is gonna go ahead and sink in so this I'm not gonna hit a stud here so I'll show you how that works I get no resistance at all you know past that first half inch so I know there's not a stud there my eighth inch toggle bolt package tells me I need a 3/8 inch drill bit so I'm going to take my 3/8 bit I'm gonna follow up right where this test hole was and I'm gonna drill a 3/8 hole what we're gonna do to use the toggles we're just gonna push it in through here we're gonna collapse it push it through sometimes because of the there's a pin that goes through here the threaded part and it sticks out if you can see that a bit so sometimes you have to work it through the hole but here's a trick with toggle bolts you have to go ahead and put this through whatever you're hanging because if you don't once you push it through there you can't take the screw back out if you do the toggle is gonna drop down to the bottom of the wall and then you're right back where you started from alright so I've just taken a piece of scrap wood and put a couple of holes in it and this is to signify something that I'm gonna hang on the wall alright so what I've got to do is I've got to take my take my toggle bolt apart I've got to put my screw through there if the hole is bigger than the head of the screw then I may have to put a washer on the screw first so that the screw head doesn't pull through push that screw through the thing that I'm hanging up this can get a little bit awkward sometimes if you're hanging something real heavy you know you need some help because you've got to hold the thing you're hanging while you're pushing these toggles in so then you thread that on again making sure that you've got three or four threads exposed through the top of the toggle turn around just a little bit so you can see into them where the hole is so then you know take that toggle and compress it stick it in the hole and then you're gonna work it through the drywall likes like so so now that's in there part of the way I'm gonna show you the backside of the wall so you can see what happens on the back so now we're on the back side of the drywall and what I'm doing is I'm just continue to push it through it'll come through pops open like so then it then you can pull it back and now it's not gonna go anywhere it can't come back through the wall then I'm going to take you back to the front side of the wall and now what you have to do is tighten it up so in order to tighten it up you have to keep some some outward pressure on the screw otherwise the toggle will just spin on the back side so you've got to keep it pulled out and you know a lot of times what I'll do is I'll just take a screwdriver I'll hold whatever I'm attaching away from the wall so I've got some outward force on the screw head and then I'll use my my screwdriver to run that screw in what happens if you don't do that is this go back to the back of the wall if you just push it through and try to tighten it then the toggle just turns so it won't ever tighten up I'm gonna be careful not to get my fingers behind it because I want to pinch my finger once it starts to give you a little bit of resistance then you don't have to worry about it you can you can level up the thing your hanging you can get it exactly the way you want it and then snug it up just to touch and it's not going to go anywhere thanks for watching my video folks I appreciate it please check out some of my other videos on my channel I've got videos for do-it-yourself home improvement Auto maintenance lawn equipment maintenance all sorts of other things and hopefully some of those will help you out too and hope to see you back soon thanks a lot God bless you