I am in the process of remodeling my kitchen (brand new at this) and am wondering what type of screws to use to fasten the new cabinets to the wall. I have seen people use drywall screws, but I don’t believe they have enough shear resistance for this type of application. Any assistance is appreciated.
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I use GRK Reiser screws. German design. Made in Canada. Yellow galv coating. Torx bits that don't cam out. Rarely break.
Where is the sourse of this screw? Are they specifically designed for shear? What other applications would you use this for?
Tom
Yes. I get them from my lumber yard but I think the ir site may have link for ordering too. Do a seaarch for GRK + screws. The local sales rep always wants any back that break with a description of how. I use them a lot for remodeling framing and installations because the pounding of a nail will loosen plaster in other rooms away from my area. srew down subflooring, They've got some good washerheaded lag type for ledger boards, little bitty 1/2" x #4 for electrical boxeson fins, #6x 1-1/4" for cabinet and trim assemblies. They're a little more expensive but I waster fewer of them and they're a pleasure to use - they'll spoil ya. Mcfeeley's square drive and stainless are good too but not quite as nice as these. McFeeley's are maybe easier to get for some though.
Excellence is its own reward!
DON'T USE DRYWALL SCREWS!!!!!!!!!!
That said make sure you go through the hanging rail with the screw piffin discribed or a cabinet hanging screw available at most hardware stores.
don't use drywall screws....use deck screws! Or cabinet hanging screws....try McFeeleys. Jeff Genius has it's limits.....but stupidity knows no bounds
I've never had a problem with drywall srews. When each cabinet is attached to the next with 4 screws in each cab into studs or blocking you would need quite a load for this to fail.
That said you can never go wrong by using something stronger. We actually no longer use drywall screws, but have never had any fall especially the base cabinets.
Mike
The German screws from Canada are quite strong and perhaps the easiest to install. I had a chance to see them at a contractor show and can't seem to find the info that has the address or phone number. The 2-3/8 inch cabinet screws are a good choice, but for the real heavy loads I've used HOUSE-MATES connecting screws for furniture and cabinets by Crown Bolt. I got the House-Mate from Home Depot. A word of advice though they are a bit pricey and metric and you'll need a allen wrench type driver for your drill. You can even get the buttons for the heads.
Good luck, Turtle boy
Edited 6/17/2002 11:07:46 PM ET by turtle
there's a drywall to drywall "laminator" screw I tried once for subflooring, real thick shank, won't break, especially for those old, petrified wood old house joists,studs,framing members.no turn left unstoned
What other info do you have on them so we can check them out they may be just the thing i'm looking for for another job.
turtle boy
grabber. grabberscrews. http://www.grabber(something)no turn left unstoned
How about: http://www.grabberman.com/
Or McFeely's at: http://www.mcfeelys.com/
They have cabinet mounting screws for mounting cabinets on steel studs at:
http://store.yahoo.com/squaredrive/fasteners-screws-specialty-screws-cabinet-hanging-screws-steel-stud-cabinet-hanging-screws.html
Or pre-painted cabinet hanging screws at:
http://store.yahoo.com/squaredrive/1030-psa-c.html
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
I use the McFeelys cabinent hanging screws, #10 I think square drive 3 " long, pretty darn good screws a bit pricy but good Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
I've used those McFeely's hanger screws also. Nice screws, but why only available in 3"? 1/2" rail, 1/2" rock, leaves 2" of screw to penetrate past the middle of the stud where wiring might be. Like I say, they are a nice screw, but I won't use them again. Got very similar screw in shorter lengths from a local cabinet guy.
Laminator screws are specifically made to join sheets of drywall together without having to screw into studs, like for use in fire-resistant wall systems. Grabber is one of the companies that make them, but most any drywall-supply house should have them.
re the original question of using regular drywall screws to hang cabinets, I wouldn't do it, enen though some drywall screws can be pretty honkin, e.g., #10x3 1/2". Most commonly available are framing screws, which look pretty much like drywall screws except they have a much higher shear value. Simpson makes some, but many decking screws will work too.
I don't like dry wall screws for another reason. Black screws look like sheet in a nice new cabinet.
When I can't get the panhead cabinet hanging screws, I use a multi-purpose screw that is brass-colored with a brass finish washer. #8 min or #10's 3" long. 2-1/2's don't give enough bite into the stud. Especially for a wall cabinet that may be filled with grandma's 17 place settings of lead reinforced China.
Finish washers are a must! A countersunk woodscrew under load is basically a small splitting wedge. A lot of "quality" cabinets today come with less than ideal, backs and mounting rails.
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Of course one way to ease the burden on whatever screws are used is to place a ledger board on the wall under where the mounting strip will go, assuming there is a mounting strip.
Anyway, I agree about black screw heads, but if you use enough of them, you can make a nice pattern.
You've had problems with drywall screws but just don't know about it yet Mikey. In my remodeling, I've taken a lot of cabs out and can gaurantee you that half of the SR screws are fractured or popped off. You only find out when you go to take them out and the head spins without going anywhere. SR screws are designed for approaching the soft paper surface of the drywall with the intention that the paper will give way as the driver tip cams out. A good structural screw has about three times the shear strenghth. The Reisers are self drilling and some of them are self countersinking too. This is the same compny that produces the Topstar adjustable jamb screw.
http://www.grkfasteners.com/our_products.htmExcellence is its own reward!
Piffin,
While I agree that SR screws are not the best to use for hanging cabinets, I do think that at least the type that I used in the past were plenty strong. I never had a head break off like you mentioned. On occasion when i needed to break one it took several blows with a hammer, bending it one way then another to get the thing to break.
Maybe the newer ones that I was using were just better than the old ones used to put the original cabinets in the homes that you are remodeling.
Mike
IMO, you'd have to be nuts to use a drywall screw to mount cabinets....anyway, I haven't bothered with these special cabinet mounting screws. I just use my standard production screws (deck screws are one version), 3", with cup washers.
Lots of cabinetmakers are actually moving to the European hanging strip, made by Camar and others....it's a metal rail that gets screwed to the studs, then the cabinets (which are notched to accept the rail), are just hung on the rail. There's a mechanism on the upper inside corners of each cabinet to allow you to adjust for plumb, etc.....when they're where you want them to be, you pop in a screw somewhere inside the cabinet to lock them in place. No trying to muscle a cabinet onto the wall and trying to get it to line up with a pencil mark while someone drives a screw....the whole process becomes almost leisurely.
Here's a link to one version; the brackets are the part that goes inside the cabinets.
http://www.petermeierinc.com/catalog.asp?cat=2&cat3=41&open=2&dropCat=2&dropCat2=2cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
I don't think that you would have to be nuts to use drywall screws to hang cabinets, like Mickey said I've hung a lot of cabinets with dw screws and I have never had a cabinet come lose. I think that some of you guys know all about the sheer strength of the dw screw but you have never hung cabinets.
I cant say that I can go back and see every cabinet that I have ever hung but over the last 20 years and approximately 500 set of kitchen cabinets that I have personally hung I doubt that a damn one of them came off the wall because of a dw screw. One of you guys out there said that he has personally taken down cabinets and seen twisted off heads and lose screws, well how the hell do you know that they weren't put in that way, alfully(sic) presumptuous of you to blame it on the screw and not the installer.
Doug
Awfully presumptuous of you to assume that since you've not been back to every one of your installationas and never actually seen one fall off the wall, that you aren't doing unsafe work.
Number one - Often, when homeowner finds a failure, he/she doesn't know who the heck was the original installer. Just some guy the general contractor hired. So there's no way for him to find you.
Number two - I've done work for plenty of homeowners who have the attitude that they have no intention of calling the same guy back, if they even knew who he was, because he already screwed up the work once.
Number three - I've never seen one actually fall off the wall either. But what I have seen would curdle your inwards. One was installed with five screws and only one was still holding. The wedging tilt towards the adjacent was the only thing keeping it up and the reason I was called was to adjust the doors because they weren't lining up anymore. Another one was only held by the screw attached to the adjacent cab and it was tilting away from the wall enough that when I openned the door, the canned goods started to spill out. Accidents waiting to happen because somebody saved a buck or two.
It's so easy to get good screws, why insist on saving all of $1.50 on a kitchen when it could be somebody's three year old that gets maimed for your craziness? What I know about shear strength comes from actuall experience, What you know comes from shear BS and #### umptions.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piff
You seen one that had 5 screws and only 1 was holding. The other 4 had worked there way out? Now who is BSing who here.
No I have not gone back and checked on each and every one of the kitchen cabinets that I have installed, just as you have not gone back to make sure that every job that you claim that some FU like me has done has stood the test of time.
But what I do know is that because I have for several years done the call backs for several of the home builders that I installed cabinets for not one single kitchen cabinet was dangerously dangling over a three year olds head. Now of course you can expound on the fact that I am just bulls#@$%^& you and not owning up to the fact that I was trying to save that $1.50 per house that you mentioned, but as you, I have no reason to get on here and bs anybody because you don't know me from Adam so I don't have to impress anybody here in the finer points of installing cabinets, I'll leave that to you and your divine methods. What I do know and it comes from the same thing that you proclaim to being the only one with, basic experience. I cant say with any more certainty than you that a cabinet can or cannot fall off because of sheetrock screws, but if something is done halfassed I don't care if you got those special screws that you posses and hacks like me wouldn't know what to do with, the cabinet is prone to fall. If installed properly, and you can assume anything you want to here, doesn't seem to have stopped you so far, I don't believe that the cabinet is in danger of falling.
You tell me that I am assuming that I haven't seen my work so therefore I don't know if there is failure. I guess that your assumptions would be as invalid as your argument about the screws, huh. Were you there to see why the 4 screws came out of the wall? Or for that matter were you there to see if they were even put in properly from the git-go?
I would not be judging someone's work, that you haven't seen, based on some assumptions that you now have resolved in your own mind as fact, and coming to the conclusion that you are somehow the know-it-all in cabinet installation, and if not done your way then it is inferior work.
With all that being said here I will print out this whole thread and give it to the homebuilders that I have done work for and if they see fit then they can take it upon themselves to spend the extra $1.50 per house to rest assured that based on what Piffin says will save them millions in law suits over the next several years.
I no longer work in that area of track home style construction, mainly finer homes with bigger and heavier cabinetry and we use cleats on the wall with the cabinets hanging on them. All that being said I still think that your standard cabinets properly installed with SR screws will hold up, and if I ever have to go back and do that kind of work again I'll probably do it the same.
Preciate your bull#$%%^ opinion though.
Doug
Would be good for someone to do the science/engineering on this subject. Might eliminate the flaming, but what fun would that be? I see a lot of "don't use drywall screws" on this site for many apps. I think this may be good advise in some cases. Also, this site if sponsered by FHB, which is Fine Homebuilding, not what works, not what most people do but what is the finest way. Back to the science. We all speak of "drywall screws" without defining. I have seen many variations in size, length and diameter, of srews called "drywall screws". Does anyone here have the shear strength, assuming hardwood to drywall, of these various screws? Without this number, all is speculation. Assuming, a bad thing to do but bare with me, a "drywall screw" has a static shear of 300 LBS. Doesn't take much for a device to have 300 LBS shear. Cabinets would have almost no dynamic loading, unless you let the kids climb on them, so we many need to satisfy the static. Assuming upper cabinets will be fastened top and bottom rail every 16" and screwed together at the styles we have a monolithic cabinet that can be devided into 16" segments for analysis. What does 16" of quality cabinet weigh? 50 LBS max? How junk can a women get in 16" of cabinet. 200 LBS" If our screws have a shear of 300 LBS we have a a over a 2/1 safety margin for the static loading. Again, its all science but someone has to supply the numbers. Personally, I am using a screw that looks a lot like a drywall screw but has a "button head" instead of countersink. I like the look.
A small earthquake will provide plenty of dynamic loading. The last thing you want is for the cabinets to land on someone when they are trying to get out of the house. They may not happen often, but it is worth considering them. They also happen all over the U.S., contrary to popular belief. I would rather have nails than drywall screws. Spend the money for good hardware. It may not be your cabinet install that kills a child, but it might be one installed by someone who saw someone else use drywall screws, who learned it from you. Your actions influence others. Like someone said, this is supposed to be FINE Home Building.
Scott
Personally, in finish applications, I never use screws that are prone to shearing off. You can't just add another screw next to the one with the head broken off, and digging them out is not an option. I would rather be able to rely on the strength of a high quality fastener. Screwing the boxes to the wall as well as to each other almost always requires high torque, IMHO.
Ken Hill
all this opinion without knowing the basic engineering. I think part of Fine Homebuilding is going beyond the traditional, always done it that way, this is the area standard, let's overbuild rather than understand but to go to the next level of understanding. So far, I haven't learned more understanding on this subject, other than the subjective. I realy appreciate the people that can post why, in engineering terms, a beam has to be constucted in a certain manner, joist installed will support X etc.....
Wolf
I appreciate the engineering facts that you have provided. This is a far cry from piffin telling me that my methods and logic are bull@#$% , not a whole lot of fact base there. I take a little offence when someone who don't know squat about my work tells me that it is inferior to his. Hell as far as I know everybody who posts on here has never picked up hammer and drove a nail with it, but I'm damn sure not going to accuse someone of it unless I have more than my high opinion of myself and disrespect for everyone that don't see things my way.
As a little test and not the most scientific test by any stretch I tried to see how much weight that I could put into a 16" cabinet space. Using the heaviest dishes that I could find I could not get anywhere near 200 lbs.in that small of an area. I'm talking standard 30" high cabinets.
I do agree that we may use the term drywall screws as a generic term, most of the time the screws were provided for me so maybe its not fair to call them dw screws. Non-the-less, and I will assume your engineering is correct, I still have not seen a screw in a cabinet sheer off. I have seen them twist off but if I ever did that, it was corrected.
Some of you have mentioned that this is FHB and that we should strive to do things better than what's acceptable. Do you all do that on every single thing that you do ? I know that acceptable work, if that is what you are being paid for, is acceptable. If on the other hand you are doing work that has been considered acceptable but really isn't than that is different.
I'm not seeing any data that says that cabinets are falling off the wall left and right because of the screws.Maybe they are coming loose from the wall but that is not valid data that says the screw is at fault. I would not assume that someone is a hack because of practices that I don't employ.
I live in the midwest and even though we can get earth quakes I have never felt one in my forty some years here. I do think that if we ever get one the thing to worry about may not be the kitchen cabinets.
Wolf, I too am using a screw that has a button end, at the lumber yard where I buy them they call them torque screws, but that may be because of the torque bit that they take, not sure. As I said in my previous post I now do higher end work and we use a cleat method because of the weight and size of the cabinetry. But that doesn't undermine the work that the stock cabinetry was hung with.
I do appreciate your input and some data to back what you are saying, has a lot more credibility to your argument.
Doug
"tells me that it is inferior to his"
It's your choice of screws and your attempts to defend an inferior choice that I take exception to, not your work.
"I do agree that we may use the term drywall screws as a generic term, most of the time the screws were provided for me so maybe its not fair to call them dw screws"
so who's been going off without really knowing what he's talking about?
"Wolf, I too am using a screw that has a button end, at the lumber yard where I buy them they call them torque screws, but that may be because of the torque bit that they take, not sure."
Well, Doug, it seems after all this noise you've made that we both use the same Torx screws to hang our cabinets. Life is intresting, isn't it?
No need to apologize, I can see your red face from here. We all get that foot in mouth disease sometimes.
Keep up the good work!
Excellence is its own reward!
I've hung a lot of cabinets with drywall screws, done a lot of other things with them, too, besides hanging drywall...I've worked in hundreds of houses...I have never seen a cabinet fall because of a drywall screw...never even thought about it and thought all you weiners were full of it (I'm still pretty sure most of you are) but then Scott mentioned eathquakes, and I do know how brittle drywall screws are, all the other arguments are nit picking crap about faulty installations, not the screws, but that one's the reason ... for years I've been picking up all the cabinet screws that the real cabinet guys leave behind, then I've been using them 'cause I liked the washer heads and the #2 Roberson/Phillips drive...still, this old dog learned a new and better twick...I'll pass it along
That reminds me.. My lumber yard got a load in of #8, Woodys Grabbers. #2 square drives. I like them screws they keep getting sold out before I can to buy the 1 1/2 and 3"that I like so much.. Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
Piffin
The screws that I have purchased that you refer to as torx screws are not the ones that I used to hang cabinets in the track homes. I bought these after all of that because somewhere along the way I came across them and I liked the head on them, felt they had better holding power.
About the only thing that I would concede to you is the generic term of sheet rock screw when the screw is black.
Your attempt to put yourself on some pedestal for your superior practices is not working, except in your eyes and those of the people that have sent e-mails to me personally.
I did go back and reread the post that you put up and I could not find any mention of the four screws being fractured or for that matter what had happened to them. My fault for assuming that you said they were backed off.
You can forget about the red face because I do know what kind of work that I do and what my results have been. You make blanket statements that have know fact to back them. You still do not know weather or not these cabinets were hung with the screws in properly(by properly I mean countersunk the right amount and not snapped off).
As I have said from way back the screws were provided for the installation by the home builder, I don't remember any being provided by the cab. manufacturer. The construction supervisor referred to them as sheetrock screws and so did I, they were used for other things as well.
I don't have to defend my practices because my work will speak for itself, I stand behind the statement that I don't believe that I have had any cabinets come lose from the choice of screws that I have used. You are the one that seems to be a bit paranoid about your own work, you say that mine is inferior when you have never seen it, kind of reminds me of what one of my kids said to me one time about some kid at school who suffered from inferiority complex, you try to blow out someone else's candle to make yours look brighter. It ain't all that bright Piffin. You never once put forth any data to back your bold statements other than the horror that you encountered when you did a remodel. You seem to be very articulate but that don't make you smarter than anybody just more articulate.
Doug
"Your attempt to put yourself on some pedestal for your superior practices is not working, except in your eyes and those of the people that have sent e-mails to me personally."
I've never tried to put myself on any kind of pedestal. It is superior practices that I am trying to promote, not my self. Got nothing to gain that way. But if we all lift the standards by which we work, the general public will hold ouyr profession in higher esteem. In other words, act like a professional, and you'll be treated like one. I have no idea what e-mails you are talking about so I can't comment on them, pro or con.
" You still do not know weather or not these cabinets were hung with the screws in properly(by properly I mean countersunk the right amount and not snapped off)."
I'm still not sure what the dickens you are talking about because have said repeatedly that sheetrock screws will and do commonly fracture - sometimes invisibly - in place. It is in removing or repairing units that I discover these fractured screws. The screws that I am recommending do not snap off (Well, maybe one in every few hundred). If you are using screws that do not snap off, then you are not using sheetrock sscrews and only need to correct your terminology instead of picking fights and recommending that people out there use SR screws for cabinets. Another example of how we can act as professionals. A doctor calls a femur a femur and a lung a lung. I'm sure that lawyers have specific names for the different kind of papers they write. We can call structural screws such as deck screws and cabinet screws by the proper name so that every body will know what we are talking about.
"You are the one that seems to be a bit paranoid about your own work"
Not hardly! I find these flaws in the work of other installers who have used sheetrock screws. I sleep soundly. You have clarified for all of us that the srews you use are not apparently SR screws, and that your terminology was the only thing wrong. You were the one who claimed originally to have been using them, not I.
"You never once put forth any data to back your bold statements"
I never thought that I needed any "data" to report facts of what I have seen on jobs. It is also a fact that no cabinet manufacturer recommends using SR screws. That is for a very good reason. They've got the data.
Now if you want the laaaaaaaast word...
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
Not picking a fight, you are the one that started the "you are doing inferior work and my way is the only right way"
You say you don't have to supply any data to back your argument, well then you don't have much of an argument, other than, " you have seen these things "
Not looking for the last word, I know that I am not going to convince you any more than you are going to convince me, I do know that this whole rhetorical bull!@#$ conversation has finally exhausted my patience.
Good luck and I bow to your greatness
Doug
PS if its any consolation I do agree with you on some of your posts that I read in other threads, sorry just not this one.
In my previous post I listed the screws that I prefer to hang cabinets with.
Whatever the screws I make sure that any kitchen I work on is well hung!
Doors to!
TDo not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Mr T
That is my sentiments exactly, what I had been trying to tell the great Piffin from the on-set.
Doug
Related, but slightly off topic.
Locally NARI has a radio show each saturday. Today that had a guy that does kitchens and was he was telling about set of cabinets that he had to repair.
They where face frame and all of the faces where screwed to each other when the cabinets where installed. One minor detail, the company did not attach the faceframe to the cabinets very well. At the end was a tall pantry door with storage shelves on the door. The homeowner had loaded up the shelves. They one day the opened the door and it pull the FF loose and as the where attached to each other all of the FF came loose donw the row.
not all drywall screws are created equal. grabber screws have a much higher shear value than off brand made in china screws. having said that I still prefer to use the screws provided by the manufacturer or decking screws if I need to, however I would not be telling the truth if I said that I have NEVER used DW screws in a cabinet install, but the DW screws I used were premium DW screws.
Dougie baby, you keep using the phrase, "Properly hung". Please tell me what cabinet maker recommends hanging their cabinets with SR screws? When I buy factory made units insteada of building my own, they either provide srews or specify what kind to use, geneerally #10 structural screw, and never a sheet roock screw.
Now, If you were paying attention to what I have written in this thread before you ever chimed in instead of getting all agravated over being challenged on poor practices and maybe learning something, you would have noticed that I said that these screws were broken. Not pulled out. SR srews will fracture from too much tension applied. Some of these I specified in my reply to you had beencountersunk in the face frame attaching one unit to another. The failures that I have seen have been on installations in place on cabs others have installed. Maybe some of yours.
So get on your high horse and make all the noise you want. Just be sure to keep your insurance paid up if you insist on using SR screws for anything other than hanging sheetrock.
Excellence is its own reward!
Edited 6/28/2002 7:59:55 PM ET by piffin
2 easy tests on your next install.
#1 try to run a drywall screw through the back of the cabinet. With my screwgun and a new bit, it will either penetrate the 1/2" of particle board hanging strip or snap off.
#2 try a cabinet hanging screw with a #2 bit.
Bet you spin it out..........
Worth my $1.50 every time, heck Comfort Inn can't give me a better nights sleep at half the price.
Doug;
You're 500 sets ahead of me on that one; never installed one with drywall screws. Never will either.cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
Adrian
Your point is?
Your advertisement at the bottom of your post says "cabinetmaker" I'll assume that you are not building standard 30" high, 1/2" thick sides, 1/4" backs. I mentioned that these were in track style homes, not custom homes with custom cabinetry.
The fact that I have hung so many of the damn things that I don't care to be reminded of them should in know way get you feeling all warm and fuzzy that you haven't had to do these despicable things, it paid the bills.
From the private e-mails that I have received I assume that I have offended the great piffin because I don't see eye to eye on this subject, Sorry but from my experience I don't see any problem with the screws that I have used to install track home style cabinetry.
When the cabinetry was bigger and heavier than an alternative method was used, some of you seem to be missing that point.
My point is, I'm not ever going to use a drywall screw for anything except drywall....two reasons: shear strength, and the fact that I know about the shear strength of the screws, and the fact that they can fail, and that makes it a liability/due diligence thing. And the fact that they are threaded right to the head....no unthreaded portion like on a wood screw or a production screw....so they won't draw things tight like one of those screws will. Maybe they will draw things tight enough....maybe not; I see people building cabinets with them, and I don't get that either. In my opinion they are a rotten screw for anything other than drywall, or maybe banging something together temporarily if they are handier than another bunch of screws. I'm not willing to take the risk when the other types of screws are readily available.
I'm not calling you a child molester or anything here....just saying there are better screws for this application. If they are provided to you, well, I guess that leaves you with a situation. I'd be very surprised if a cabinet manufacturer supplied installers with drywall screws, because of the liability question. It only takes one accident.cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
Ok, ok. When you hold the cabinets to the wall by pressing them against it, they stay up by the friction created by the applied pressure. There is little mechanical sheer strength, but plenty created by the friction, or they would not stay up. Drywall screws work in this fashion also. Depending on the "drywall" screw used, they may also have plenty of sheer strength - a 3 incher with coarse thread needs to have plenty of sheer strength so the head does not pop off during screwing into wood. It depends on the screw. I assume people here aren't talking about 2 inch s type wimpy screws, but the serious screws, almost like decking screws. I've had boxes by one manufacturer that had almost no sheer strength, others that were tougher than joist hanger nails (really!). IT DEPENDS ON THE SCREW! (hehe) Also, the larger ones have a smooth section near the head that helps pull the cabinet tight to the wall.
I'd be more worried about the heads pulling *through* the particle board on some cabinets, especially if they are deeply countersunk, rather than the head popping off. Washers would probably help. The bugle head screws are not the best, which is why I assume the cabinet screws have a pan head, at least the ones I have seen. Can you use drywall screws? Probably. Are they spec'ed for the job? No.
In any event, I took out cabinets NAILED up in the 70's with FINISH nails, that held a ton of dishes, and they stayed up fine . . . As I said, it probably depends on the manufacturer, type, and specification of the drywall screw you use . . .
I use QuickScrew and I order mine from Kreg (the ones that make Kreg Jig) I get the 2 1/2 " cabinet instalation screw. I have never had one break. I also use them to screw the face frames together.