Do I need a different drill?
I'm trying to change the strike plate on my front door to one meant to reinforce the frame. The new strike plate has 3" screws. When trying to screw them they will go in about 2 inches and there is a resistance, my drill starts to slip and start stripping the screw. Im not sure what is going on or if I need to do something different. By the way the house was built in. 1987 and the drill that im using is pretty small and is 3.6v so Im not sure if the problem is that is not powerful enough. Any suggestions?
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Your drill will work fine, its just difficult to drive long screws into wood without stripping out the head.
There are a few tricks that should help you.
The easiest thing to do is rub the screw threads on a bar of soap before trying to drive them. You could also drill a pilot hole in the door frame, just choose a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw threads. A third option is to use different screws. Philips head screws strip out very easily but torx screws (the ones with a star shaped driver hole) work a lot better.
The answer to your question has been well covered. However, having installed doors myself, I know that sometimes the door frame is mounted to 2X4's or 2X6's over cinder block walls. I have just that situation on my house. If I try to drive a screw through wood into the cinder blocks - it ain't hap'nin'.
Without knowing what's behind your door frame we can only guess. But if you get so far and run into an obstruction the screw will stop. And unless you're capable of holding sufficient force against the head of the screw the driver will slip and strip out the head. I've done that too. And the problem is worse when my wife helps. She's not capable of applying as much pressure as I can and she'll strip just about every screw she encounters. (we've done a lot of remodeling. I took the power tools away from her. Only makes more work for me)
Your other answers assume you're dealing with stick frame construction, which is very common. But in some areas brick construction is more common. Here in Utah (north of SLC) you find a lot of older homes built this way. Newer homes are either stick frame or pre-fab stick frame built. So a lot depends on what you have.
Your little drill driver IS too small to drive a 2 inch screw. Since you describe a screw going two inches then stalling, you're probably driving a 3 inch screw. There's no way that little toy can handle the job. It's OK for drilling but not so much for screwing screws that big.
And yes, soap on the threads DOES help. I've had that experience too.
Best of luck with your project.
'')
Drill a deeper pilot hole. Go to drugstore and get a bottle of glycol or is it glycerol. One of the two, it is very slippery. Dip the screw in and it should be easier to drive in. I found out about this stuff in chem class years ago and adapted it to screws, works really nice. The wood will "grab" screws so no they won't slide back out.
Replace the toy drill with one strong enough to drill a pilot hole for the screws and then use a hand powered screwdriver to install the screws. That should allow you to do what you are trying to accomplish.
=== Tony covered the problem for you == that's my guess too ... the door frame is butted against the brick wall == also you need to use that 3.2v drill for light duty == and you should buy a corded drill motor for durability and strength == an option is the hammer drill that has those two functions of regular drill and the hammer drill for concrete or brick [[ it is a good buy and versatile ]] ------------
you just need to pre dill the holes deep enough for the screws